ii  i!i  1 


THE  GETTY  RESEARCH  INSTITUTE  LIBRARY 

Halsted  VanderPoel  Campanian  Collection 


Rare  Books 

and  their  Prices 


T(are  Boofo 

*Their  ^Prices 


With  Chapters  on 

^Pictures  lottery  ^Porcelain 

and 

^Postage  Stamps 


BY 

W.   ROBERTS 


NEW    YORK 
LONGMANS,   GREEN,   AND   CO. 

1896 


THE  GETTY  RESEARCH 
INSTITUTE  LIBRARY 


Preface 

The  first  portion  of  the  chapter  on 
Books  and  the  second  Chapter  on  Pic- 
tures have  appeared  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century  ;  the  second  portion  of  the 
chapter  on  Booh,  and  also  those  chap- 
ters  dealing  'with  Porcelain  and  Postage 
Stamps,  were  first  published  in  the 
Fortnightly  Review,  to  the  respective 
'Editors  of  which  important  periodicals 
I  desire  to  express  my  thanks  for  their 
permission  to  reprint  these  papers.  Each 
article  has  been  most  carefully  revised, 
and  very  considerably  amplified. 

W.  R. 


Contents 


PAGE 


PREFACE  ......  v 

INTRODUCTION  ix 

RARE  BOOKS  AND  THEIR  PRICES        .  I 

PICTURES         .....  53 

POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN          .         .  105 

POSTAGE  STAMPS      ....  129 

INDEX 153 


vn 


Introductory 


ACCORDING  to  La  Bruyere,  Curiosity,  by 
which  is  meant  the  passion  for  collecting 
objects  of  art  or  interest,  is  not  a  taste  for 
that  which  is  good  or  that  which  is  beautiful, 
but  for  that  which  is  rare,  or  that  which 
nobody  else  has.  It  is  not  (the  same  philo- 
sopher goes  on  to  say)  an  attachment  for 
that  which  is  perfect,  but  for  that  which 
is  county  and  that  which  is  a  la  mode.  It 
is  not  an  amusement,  but  a  passion — often 
so  violent,  indeed,  that  it  takes  precedence 
of  both  love  and  ambition.  There  is  much 
that  is  true  in  La  Bruyere's  generalisations, 
but  there  is  also  much  of  the  suggestio 
falsi.  Every  man  and  boy  collects  some- 
thing, and  therefore  possesses  the  collecting 
instinct  more  or  less  deeply  grained  in  their 
natures.  As  with  every  other  phase  of 
human  life,  the  collecting  instinct  is  largely 
a  matter  of  environment  and  associations, 
tempered  undoubtedly  by  individualism. 
There  is  the  same  hunger,  for  example, 
with  the  picture-collector  as  with  the  boy 
ix 


Introductory 

who  collects  postage  stamps  or  tram-tickets, 
the  chief  difference  indeed  being  a  mere 
question  of  taste  and  of  money. 

The  enthusiasm  which  is  inevitably  born 
of  the  collecting  spirit  too  often  develops 
into  a  mania  for  the  infinitely  little,  the 
excrescences,  in  fact,  of  the  particular  hobby. 
"  C'est  elle,"  exclaims  the  Bibliomaniac  in 
"  Les  Loisirs  " — 

"  C'est  elle  .  .  .  Dieux,  que  je  suis  aise ! 
Qui  .  .  .  c'est  ...  la  bonne  Edition  ; 
Voilk  bien,  pages  neuf  et  seize, 
Les  deux  fautes;d'impression 
Qui  ne  sont  pas  dans  la  mauvaise." 

It  is  not,  however,  with  those  whom 
Voltaire,  in  "Le  Temple  du  Gout/*  has 
classified  as — 

"  L'amas  curieux  et  bizarre 
De  vieux  manuscrits  vermoulus, 
Et  la  suite  inutile  et  rare 
D'dcrivains  qu'on  n'a  jamais  lus," 

that  we  purpose  dealing  either  in  this 
Introduction  or  in  the  book  itself.  It  is 
a  hopeless  task,  moreover,  to  attempt  to 
draw  a  hard  and  fast  line  between  what 
ought  to  be  collected  and  what  ought  not. 
The  person  who  has  a  thirst  for  relics  of 
criminals  and  murderers  generally  can  justify 
his  peculiar  taste  with  a  logic — and  perhaps 
with  an  aggressiveness — which  will  make  the 
x 


Introductory 

collector  of  objects  of  art  think  that  at  all 
events  there  must  be  something  in  his  rival 
collector's  hobby  besides  gruesomeness. 

Everything  is  "  collected  "  nowadays,  from 
railway  engines  and  men-of-war  ships  to  ani- 
malculas.  Almost  everybody  collects — the 
poor  man  as  well  as  the  rich,  the  man  with 
taste  and  artistic  instinct,  and  the  man  with 
neither.  Any  attempt,  therefore,  at  group- 
ing the  various  things  which  are  collected, 
or  at  classifying  the  people  who  collect,  must 
inevitably  fail.  There  are,  and  always  will  be, 
people  who  are  vetera  extollentes^  recentium 
incuriosi)  and  who  pass  from  youth  to  old 
age  amid  Us  infiniments  pet-its.  But  who 
shall  decide  as  to  what  is  old  and  what  is 
new,  or  as  to  an  acceptable  definition  of  the 
infinitely  little  ?  The  passion  for  collecting 
is  unquestionably  one  of  the  greatest  safety- 
valves  of  modern  civilisation,  and  one  of  the 
greatest  conceivable  preventatives  of  wrong- 
doing. It  is  also  unquestionably  a  species 
of  selfishness,  but  it  is  a  selfishness  which  is 
harmful  to  no  one. 

The  antiquity  of  collecting  is  almost  as 
great  as  that  of  the  world  itself.  It  has 
flourished  or  declined  according  to  the  state 
or  condition  of  the  society  in  which  we 
search  for  it,  but  it  has  always  had  a  tangible 
potency — a  force  which  the  disasters  and 
xi 


Introductory 

falls  of  various  nations  have  never  suc- 
ceeded in  obliterating.  "  Why,"  it  has  been 
asked,  "should  an  Egyptian  of  the  time 
of  Sesostris,  or  an  Athenian  in  the  days 
of  Phidias,  have  collected  the  works  of  the 
barbarians  ?  They  could  teach  him  nothing 
which  he  cared  to  know,  and  such  art  as 
they  might  display  would  have  appeared  to 
him  contemptible,  if  not  hateful."  The 
collecting  passion  of  the  Greeks  appears  to 
have  been  well  developed,  but  their  acquisi- 
tiveness was  rather  with  a  view  to  the  adorn- 
ment of  the  temple  and  the  agora  than  their 
individual  houses.  This  exceedingly  patriotic 
spirit  is  not  yet  dead,  for  the  many  national 
collections  of  objects  of  art,  of  literature, 
and  so  forth,  are,  to  a  great  extent,  due  to 
private  munificence.  In  by  far  the  majority 
of  instances  these  collections  do  not  become 
public  until  after  the  owner's  death — a  fact 
which  in  no  way  impairs  the  value  of  the 
bequest. 

A  writer  in  the  Quarterly  Review  for 
October  1880,  has  much  that  is  interesting 
to  say  concerning  the  great  collectors  and 
collections  of  the  past.  The  books  upon 
which  this  admirable  article  is  founded  are 
an  anonymous  work,  "  Les  Collectionneurs 
de  1'Ancienne  Rome,"  1867;  M.  E.  Bon- 
affe's  book  with  the  same  title,  issued  in 
1873  ;  and  "  Les  Arts  a  la  Cour  des  Papes," 
xii 


Introductory 

by  Eugene  Muntz,  1879,  each  of  which  is 
a  valuable  contribution  to  the  History  of 
Collecting,  and  from  each  of  which  several 
of  the  statements  in  this  introductory  chapter 
are  derived.  The  reviewer  points  out  that 
"the  public  place  of  many  a  Greek  city,  small 
in  size  as  in  most  cases  it  was,  must  have 
had  all  the  aspect  of  a  museum."  Even  in 
the  time  of  Vespasian  (A.D.  9-79),  3000 
statues  remained  at  Rhodes  (Pliny,  xxxiv. 
17),  and  there  were  not  fewer  at  Delphi, 
Athens,  and  Olympia.  It  is  stated  that  an 
approximate  calculation  of  the  statues  and 
images  plundered  by  the  Romans  from 
Greece  places  the  number  at  a  hundred 
thousand.  The  temples  were  filled  with 
statues  and  pictures  which  had  very  little 
relation  to  the  divinity  to  whom  they  were 
"  offered."  Although  these  larger  objects 
of  art  appear  to  have  been  regarded  as 
the  prescriptive  property  of  the  community, 
it  is  very  certain  that  the  richer  citizens 
were  great  collectors  of  such  things  as  vases, 
engraved  gems,  sculptured  ivories  and  coins, 
and  perhaps  to  some  extent  of  pictures.  The 
four  first-named  species  of  the  collector's 
desire  were  undoubtedly  very  keenly  sought 
after,  as  many  perfect  and  beautiful  ex- 
amples still  existing  prove  beyond  question. 

The  men  of  old  Rome  had  a  great  con- 
tempt   for    collectors    of    objects    of    art. 
xiii 


Introductory 

Cicero,  in  his  second  oration  against  Verres, 
speaks  of  such  things  as  contemptible,  and 
says  that  the  forefathers  of  those  whom  he 
addressed  allowed  the  people  whom  they 
had  made  tributary  to  retain  them  as  an 
amusement  and  consolation  in  their  slavery. 
In  the  "  Paradoxia  "  (V.  2),  the  great  orator, 
enraged  probably  at  seeing  that  the  taste  for 
these  puerilities  grew  and  increased  around 
him,  brings  forward  the  argument  that  as 
in  a  house  the  slaves  who  were  intrusted 
with  the  care  of  the  objects  of  art  held 
the  lowest  rank,  so  those  who  passionately 
loved  such  objects  were  in  the  lowest  depth 
of  slavery.  Verres,  whom  Cicero  holds  up 
to  public  scorn  as  the  type  of  the  selfish  and 
unscrupulous  collector,  undoubtedly  was  one 
of  the  most  celebrated  collectors  of  antiquity, 
and  no  crime  deterred  him  from  obtaining 
the  art  treasures  on  which  he  had  set  his 
mind.  Verres,  as  governor  of  Sicily,  had 
opportunities  beyond  the  reach  of  his  fellow- 
collectors — and  they  loved  him  none  the  more 
for  that.  Verres  voluntarily  exiled  himself 
after  Cicero's  first  oration  (actio  primd] 
and  so  made  any  defence  of  his  actions 
impossible ;  he,  however,  lived  in  great 
affluence  in  one  of  the  provinces,  doubtless 
surrounded  by  the  magnificent  collection  of 
objects  of  art  of  which  he  had  plundered 
the  Sicilians. 

xiv 


Introductory 

But  Cicero  himself  was  not  only  a  lover  of 
the  fine  arts;  he  was  also  a  collector.  He 
ornamented  his  villas  with  statues  and  paint- 
ings, and  is  said  to  have  spent  a  million  of 
sesterces  (about  ^8000)  in  the  purchase  of 
a  table  of  "  citrus  "  or  thuya  wood.  Being 
a  collector  himself,  Cicero  was  fully  cogni- 
sant of  the  collector's  vulnerable  points,  and 
was,  therefore,  the  best  possible  "  devil's 
advocate."  We  have  only  Cicero's  attack, 
which  is  not  necessarily  a  proof  that  all  the 
charges  he  brought  to  bear  against  Verres  are 
true.  Verres  apparently  made  no  defence, 
which,  so  long  as  he  retained  his  treasures, 
would  be  a  superfluous  undertaking.  When 
the  collecting  hunger  seizes  a  man,  obstacles 
only  give  zest  to  his  acquisitiveness ;  and 
this  was  precisely  the  case  with  Verres. 
Nothing  came  amiss  to  him — he  "  even 
ventured  to  appropriate  to  himself  the 
colossal  candelabrum  of  gold  enriched  with 
precious  stones  which  the  son  of  Antiochus 
was  conveying  as  a  present  to  the  Republic." 
Verres  made  an  ostentatious  display  of  his 
various  trophies.  The  entrance-doors  of  his 
house  were  those  of  the  Temple  of  Minerva 
at  Syracuse,  covered  with  bas-reliefs  in  ivory 
incrusted  with  gold.  His  halls  were  filled 
with  statues  in  marble  or  in  bronze,  which 
had  been  "  conveyed "  from  the  countries 
of  Sicily,  Asia,  or  Greece — the  Cupid  of 
xv  b 


Introductory 

Praxiteles,  the  Hercules  of  Myron,  the 
Sappho  of  Silanion,  and  a  crowd  of  other 
chefs-d'oeuvre  of  Greek  sculpture.  His 
various  collections  were  rich  in  pictures, 
statues,  ivory,  candelabra,  vases,  armour, 
engraved  gems,  and  vessels  of  gold  and 
silver — all  doubtless  obtained  in  the  same 
impartial  manner. 

Caesar  also  was  a  collector.  He  "  was  not 
governed  by  the  narrow  ideas  of  his  day. 
His  collections  were  not  exiled  to  country 
villas ;  he  had  higher  and  wider  views.  He 
caused  temporary  porticoes  to  be  constructed 
at  the  Capitol  in  order  to  exhibit  his  works 
of  art  to  the  public.  His  cabinets  of 
engraved  gems — and  of  these  he  possessed 
six — were  sent  to  adorn  the  temple  which 
he  built  in  honour  of  Venus  Genetrix  ; 
he  settled  the  plan  of  a  vast  library,  of 
which  Varro  was  to  have  the  management ; 
,in  fact,  he  opened  to  the  people  his  fine 
gardens  on  the  banks  of  the  Tiber,  and 
placed  there  his  gallery  of  pictures  and 
statues."  It  was,  the  Quarterly  reviewer 
tells  us,  there  that  a  fine  statue  of  Venus 
was  discovered  in  the  year  1860. 

The  list  of  Roman  collectors  includes 
many  illustrious  names,  e.g.,  Sallust  the 
historian,  in  whose  garden  the  Dying  Gladia- 
tor was  found ;  Asinus  Pollio,  the  orator, 
poet,  historian,  and  friend  of  Augustus, 
xvi 


Introductory 

who  once  owned  the  Toro  Farnese,  now  at 
Naples  ;  whilst  even  Anthony  and  Brutus 
stand  before  the  world  clearly  convicted  of 
the  crime  of  collecting.  The  spirit  of  the 
collector  has  in  reality  undergone  very  little 
change  during  the  past  two  thousand  years. 
The  objects  of  his  attention  have  certainly 
greatly  increased  in  number,  and  can  be  no 
longer  stolen  with  a  due  regard  for  per- 
sonal convenience  ;  but  there  are  still  many 
"  touches  "  of  nature  which  demonstrate  the 
uninterrupted  current  of  human  curiosity 
in  the  matter  of  objects  of  art.  To  both 
Martial  and  Juvenal  the  collector  appealed 
with  an  irresistible  force.  We  learn  of 
Eros,  who  weeps  because  he  cannot  afford 
to  buy  all  he  sees  ;  of  Mamurra,  who 
spends  his  day  in  examining  tables  of  ivory, 
couches  of  tortoiseshell,  murrhine  cups, 
golden  vases  set  with  emeralds — and  ends 
by  buying  two  cups  for  a  halfpenny  !  If 
a  census  were  taken  of  the  various  types 
of  collectors  in  London,  it  would  probably 
be  astonishing  to  find  what  a  large  number 
of  Mamurrians  there  are  !  The  census- 
maker  need  not  go  far  beyond  Holywell 
Street,  Strand  :  the  booksellers  there  would 
supply  him  with  enough  information  to  fill 
a  large  "  Returns." 

M.  Bonnaffe,  in  the  work  already  men- 
tioned, gives  us  a  pen-picture  of  the  con- 
xvii 


Introductory 

tents  of  the  curiosity  shops  in  Rome  when 
Britain  was  still  an  island  of  barbarians. 
The  contents  were  as  delightfully  varied 
then  as  now,  as  the  following  inventory 
proves  : — "  Statues,  pictures,  bronzes  of  the 
school  of  ^Egina,  made  famous  by  Myron  ; 
of  that  of  Delos  by  Polycletus  ;  invaluable 
rarities  of  Corinthian  brass,  marvels  of 
modern  chasing,  pieces  marked  with  the 
name  of  Boethius  or  of  Mys,  gigantic 
candelabra  from  the  workshops  of  JEgina 
or  Tarentum ;  farther  on,  the  shops  of 
the  engravers,  the  jewellers,  the  dealers  in 
vessels  of  murrhine,  of  rock-crystal,  of 
amber ;  delicate  works  in  coloured  glass 
cut  on  the  wheel,  or  chased  up  like  a 
piece  of  silver  plate  ;  chefs-d'oeuvre  in 
miniature,  in  ivory,  in  terra-cotta  ;  the 
beautiful  pottery  of  Rhegium  and  of  Cumae ; 
tapestries,  furniture  in  bronze,  in  ivory,  in 
thuja,  in  maple,  &c." 

What,  it  may  be  asked,  has  become  of  all 
these  treasures  of  the  ancients  ?  Probably 
only  one  in  a  thousand  has  survived  the 
decline,  fall,  and  destruction  of  Greece  and 
of  Rome,  not  to  mention  the  score  of  other 
national  collapses  and  national  disasters.  A 
large  number  of  those  which  have  come 
down  to  us  are  only  shadows  of  their  former 
selves,  mere  caricatures  of  their  pristine 
beauty.  The  howling  demagogue,  the  igno- 
xviii 


Introductory 

rant  iconoclast,  and  the  vandal  to  whom 
nothing  is  sacred :  each  of  these  has  con- 
tributed his  share  to  the  destruction  or  muti- 
lation of  the  works  of  antiquity. 

When  the  glory  of  Greece  became  levelled 
into  dirt  and  death,  and  the  grandeur  of 
ancient  Rome  became  humbled,  the  collector 
suffered  a  collapse  which  threatened  to  prove 
fatal.  But  from  the  ruins  there  evolved  a 
new  order  of  things,  a  new  race  of  collectors. 
Collecting,  as  a  fine  art,  can  scarcely  be  said  to 
have  had  a  great  vogue  until  the  Renaissance. 
"In  the  fifteenth  century  the  mediaeval  schools 
of  art  were  dying — exhausted  by  their  very 
fecundity,  and  aged  before  their  time.  This 
was  the  hour  of  reaction,  antiquity  issues 
from  the  earth.  Men  were  dazzled.  Statues, 
monuments,  bronzes,  medals,  engraved  gems, 
fragments  of  ancient  art — a  desire  to  see  and 
possess  all  these  became  general.  The  Re- 
naissance is  the  golden  age  of  collections." 

It  is  to  Italy,  and  perhaps  to  Italy  alone, 
that  we  must  look  for  traces  of  the  art 
collector  as  we  know  him  to-day.  One  of 
the  earliest  on  record  is  Cardinal  Giordano 
Orsini,  who  is  said  to  have  formed  a  choice 
collection  of  the  antique  things  of  Rome  at 
the  latter  part  of  the  twelfth  century,  and 
to  have  built  an  edifice  to  receive  them. 
About  a  century  later,  Pope  Boniface  VIII. 
xix 


Introductory 

— better  known  for  his  disputes  with  the 
kings  of  England  and  France  than  as  a  col- 
lector— possessed  fifty  cameos,  and  doubtless 
other  objects  of  art.  M.  Eugene  Mtintz, 
in  "  Les  Arts  a  la  Cour  des  Papes,"  prints 
a  most  interesting  memorandum,  drawn  up 
in  1335  by  Oliviero  Forza  of  Treviso,  when 
about  to  visit  Venice,  in  which  he  notes  the 
various  acquisitions  of  sculptures,  paintings, 
embroideries,  books,  medals,  designs,  and  an 
ivory  chessboard,  which  he  proposed  to  make 
in  the  city.  And  here  we  have  a  distinct 
and  tangible  reference  to  one  of  the  earliest 
bric-a-brac  hunters  on  record.  Petrarch 
was  a  collector  of  MSS.  and  ancient  medals. 
Pietro  Barbo,  afterwards  Paul  II.,  from  early 
youth  pursued  the  hobby  of  collecting  with 
an  enthusiasm  and  energy  quite  refreshing  in 
the  history  of  Popes.  He  was  an  ostenta- 
tious, profligate,  and  illiterate  priest,  who 
persecuted  letters  and  science  with  a  bitter- 
ness almost  unparalleled.  He  hated  the 
Medici  even  more  than  men  of  learning. 
That  such  a  person  should  have  a  taste  for 
the  fine  arts  is  a  mystery,  and  no  one  has  ever 
sustained  in  his  favour  a  charge  of  possessing 
any  of  the  finer  feelings  of  humanity. 

Paul's   successor,   Sixtus  IV.,  was  a  dis- 

perser  rather  than  a  collector,  inasmuch  as 

he   sold    many   of   Paul's    rich   jewels   and 

objects  of  art   to   the  different   princes  of 

xx 


Introductory 

Europe,  Lorenzo  de'  Medici  securing  some 
of  the  treasures.  The  collecting  passion 
was  strongly  inherent  in  the  Medici  family. 
Cosmo,  son  of  the  founder  of  the  family, 
was  an  ardent  collector  of  manuscripts  in 
every  language  and  on  every  subject;  and 
to  him  is  due  the  "  Bibliotheca  Mediceo- 
Laurentiana."  Lorenzo,  the  brother  of 
Cosmo,  was  also  an  assiduous  collector,  not 
only  of  books,  but  of  works  of  art  generally. 
But  just  as  the  fame  of  Lorenzo,  the  grand- 
son of  Cosmo,  and  known  universally  as  il 
Magnifico,  greatly  exceeds  that  of  any  other 
member  of  the  family,  so  did  his  collecting 
proclivities  entirely  outvie  those  of  any  of 
his  relations.  An  entire  volume  would  be 
necessary  to  do  adequate  justice  to  the  col- 
lections formed  by  the  various  members  of 
the  Medici  family.  Roscoe's  "  Life  of  Lor- 
enzo de'  Medici"  deals  pretty  fully  with 
the  subject,  and  it  is  to  this  work  that  the 
reader  is  referred  for  further  details. 

The  example  of  this  great  family  was 
enthusiastically  emulated  by  many  con- 
temporaries. Poggio,  for  example,  was  an 
ardent  collector.  "My  chamber,"  he  says, 
"  is  surrounded  with  busts  in  marble,  one 
of  which  is  whole  and  elegant.  The  others 
are  indeed  mutilated,  and  some  of  them  are 
even  noseless,  yet  they  are  such  as  may 
please  a  good  artist."  Other  distinguished 
xxi 


Introductory 

Italian  collectors,  from  the  latter  part  of  the 
fifteenth  to  the  seventeenth  century,  include 
Count  Balthasar  Castiglione,  Pietro  Aretino, 
Don  Ferrate  Carlo,  and  Commendatore  Cas- 
sino  del  Pozzo. 

From  Italy  the  collecting  spirit  passed  to 
France.  One  of  the  most  distinguished  of 
the  early  collectors  was  Florimond  Robertet, 
treasurer  of  Charles  VIII. ,  Louis  XII.,  and 
Francis  I.  Of  his  collection  an  inventory 
has  been  published  by  the  French  Society 
of  Antiquaries  (vol.  xxx.);  and  one  of  the 
most  notable  of  the  items  is  a  collection 
of  "  400  beautiful  glasses  of  all  colours,  and 
other  vessels  of  crystal  of  Venice,  beautified 
with  the  prettiest  conceits  which  the  Venetian 
glassmakers  could  invent."  In  a  curious 
book,  quoted  by  M.  BonafF6  in  "Les  Col- 
lectionneurs  de  1'Ancienne  Rome,"  "  Blasons 
domestiques  pour  la  decoration  d'une 
maison  honneste,"  1539,  the  author,  Gilles 
Corrozet,  describes  in  verse  the  contents  of 
the  cabinet  in  which  were  preserved  both 
the  artistic  and  useful  treasures  of  the  house. 
The  lines  are  as  follow  : — 

"  Cabinet  rempli  de  rich  esses 

Cabinet  de  tableaux  remply 
Et  de  maintes  belles  ymages 
De  grandz  et  petis  personages, 

xxii 


Introductory 


Cabinet  pare"  de  medailles 

Et  curieuses  antiquailles 

De  marbre,  de  japhe  et  porphire. 

Cabinet-oil  est  le  buffect 

D'or  et  d'argent  du  tout  parfaict, 

Cabinet  garny  de  ceinctures 

De  douvres  et  de  bordures 

De  fers  d'or,  de  estocz,  de  tableaulx 

De  chaisnes,  de  boutons  tres  beaulx 

De  moucherons,  de  braceltz, 

De  mux  plus  cher  qu'or  de  ducat 
D'ambre  fin,  de  sauon  muscat 

Et  parmi  tant  du  dieurs  joyaulx 
Sont  les  riches  et  gros  signeaulx 
Les  patenostres  cristallines 
De  perles  et  fins  rubis 

Puis  les  mignons  et  bons  cousteaulx 
Les  forcettes  et  les  ciseaulx 
Le  miroir,  le  gente  escriptoire 
Le  chappeau,  1'eschiquier  d'yvoire." 

The  religious  and  other  wars  which  began 
towards  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
and  ceased  only  at  the  accession  of  Henri 
IV.  nearly  a  century  later,  killed  for  a  time 
the  collecting  sentiment,  which,  indeed,  can 
only  live  and  flourish  in  time  of  peace.  It 
was  not,  however,  until  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  when  Louis  XIV. 
succeeded  to  the  throne,  that  it  entered 
upon  what  may  be  termed  its  best  period. 
Collectors  soon  became  numbered  not  by 
xxiii 


Introductory 

units,  but  by  scores  and  hundreds.     At  the 
head  of  them  all  comes  Cardinal  Mazarin. 

The  English  taste  for  collecting  objects 
of  art  was  undoubtedly  the  outcome  of 
foreign  travel  on  the  part  of  English  gentle- 
men. The  Englishman  who  might  have  been 
the  greatest  collector  of  his  age — Henry 
VIII.  —  unfortunately  developed  into  the 
greatest  disperser.  It  is  useless  now  to 
bewail  the  wholesale  destruction  or  mutila- 
tion of  works  of  art  and  antiquity  which 
followed  the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries. 
Had  these  objects  been  carefully  preserved 
and  placed  in  the  custody  of  sympathetic 
men,  the  museums  of  this  country  would 
have  been  richer  by  far  than  any  other  in 
Europe.  Long  before  this  cataclysm  Eng- 
land possessed  a  genuine  collector  in  the 
person  of  Cardinal  Wolsey.  It  is  said  of 
him  that  if  Quentin  Matsys  had  a  picture 
on  the  easel,  Wolsey  was  ready  to  purchase 
it ;  if  there  was  a  curious  clock,  it  was 
secured  for  him.  His  fondness  for  tapestry 
amounted  to  a  passion.  His  agents  ran- 
sacked the  Continent  to  procure  choice  sets 
of  arras,  new  and  old,  for  his  palace.  His 
magnificence  generally  is  so  much  a  matter 
of  history  that  it  need  not  be  entered  into 
here.  The  one  redeeming  feature  in  the 
public  acts  of  Charles  I.  is  that  he  was  a 
xxiv 


Introductory 

great  collector,  and  the  dispersion  of  his 
collection  of  works  of  art  has  been  gene- 
rally regarded  as  one  of  the  great  national 
calamities  of  the  period.  The  Tradescants, 
Elias  Ashmole,  and  other  distinguished  col- 
lectors are  part  and  parcel  of  the  history  of 
the  seventeenth  century. 

Sir  Hans  Sloane,  who  was  born  in  1660 
and  died  in  1752,  was  one  of  the  great  col- 
lectors of  his  time,  and  his  collections  formed 
the  nucleus  of  the  British  Museum.  Sir 
Charles  Hanbury  Williams,  being  asked  by 
Sir  Hans  Sloane  to  send  him  what  curiosities 
he  could  find  in  his  travels,  sent  him  an 
amusing  poetical  catalogue  of  "  rarities,"  of 
which  the  following  is  a  specimen  : — 

"  From  Carthage  brought,  the  sword  I'll  send 
Which  brought  Queen  Dido  to  her  end. 
The  stone  whereby  Goliath  died, 
Which  cures  the  headache,  well  apply'd. 
A  whetstone,  worn  exceeding  small, 
Time  used  to  whet  his  scythe  withal ; 
The  pigeon  stuff'd  which  Noah  sent 
To  tell  him  where  the  waters  went. 
A  ring  I've  got  of  Samson's  hair, 
The  same  which  Delilah  did  wear  : 
Saint  Dunstan's  tongs,  which  story  shows 
Did  pinch  the  devil  by  his  nose. 
The  very  shaft,  as  all  may  see, 
Which  Cupid  shot  at  Anthony  ; 
And,  which  above  the  rest  I  prize, 
A  glance  of  Cleopatra's  eyes  ; 

This  my  wish,  it  is  my  glory, 
To  furnish  your  nicknackatory." 
XXV 


Introductory 

Probably  the  greatest  collector  of  the  last 
century  was  Sir  Andrew  Fountaine,  of  Nar- 
ford  Hall,  Norfolk.  He  was  born  in  1676, 
and  was  knighted  in  1699  for  his  classical 
attainments.  In  1701  he  paid  an  official 
visit  to  Hanover  with  Lord  Macclesfield,  and 
went  thence  to  Italy,  buying  anything  scarce 
and  curious  which  came  under  his  notice. 
He  succeeded  to  Narford  on  the  death  of 
his  father  in  1707;  seven  years  later  he 
made  a  long  sojourn  in  Paris,  going  thence 
to  Italy,  and  spending  nearly  three  years  at 
Rome  and  Florence.  >  In  1727  he  succeeded 
Sir  Isaac  Newton  as  Master  of  the  Mint.  His 
collection,  which  was  considerably  augmented 
by  the  late  Mr.  Andrew  Fountaine,  who 
died  in  1873,  comprised  the  rarest  and  most 
beautiful  works  of  cinquecento  ceramic  art 
ever  formed  by  a  private  individual,  many 
of  the  examples  being  absolutely  unique. 
The  sale  of  this  magnificent  collection 
at  Christie's  in  1884  realised  a  total  of 
^96,278,  whilst  a  further  portion  of  the 
collection  produced  nearly  ;£  15,000  in  July 
1894. 

Horace  Walpole,  who  was  born  in  1717 
and  died  in  1797,  was  a  very  celebrated  col- 
lector of  objects  of  art,  and  is  said  to  have 
formed  his  passion  for  the  Fine  Arts  while 
in  Italy  on  the  Grand  Tour.  It  was  not  until 
April  1842  that  the  contents  of  Strawberry 
xxvi 


Introductory 

Hill  were  sold  by  auction ;  the  proceeds  of 
the  sale,  which  lasted  twenty-four  days, 
amounted  to  over  ,£33,450.  In  no  respect, 
however,  can  Horace  Walpole  be  compared  to 
William  Beckford, — either  as  a  man  of  taste 
or  as  a  collector.  Beckford  was  an  excellent 
scholar,  and  possessed  a  fine  judgment  of 
almost  every  branch  of  art.  He  formed  one 
of  the  choicest  and  most  extensive  libraries 
in  England,  and  his  galleries  of  pictures  and 
antiquities  were  almost  unequalled.  In  May 
1844  Phillips,  of  New  Bond  Street,  sold  a 
quantity  of  furniture,  &c.,  from  this  collec- 
tion, the  amount  realised  by  a  thirty-seven 
days'  sale  being  over  ;£  8  0,000.  The  sale 
of  his  library,  in  1882-83,  realised  over 
;£86,ooo. 

Ralph  Bernal  formed  a  collection  of  ar- 
ticles of  rare  excellence,  and  of  an  age 
exceedingly  rich  in  ornamental  art,  extend- 
ing from  the  Byzantine  period  to  that  of 
Louis  XVI.  At  the  dispersal  of  this  col- 
lection in  1855,  some  extraordinary  prices 
were  realised,  which  have  been  attributed 
to  the  artistic  character  of  the  articles  them- 
selves, rather  than  to  their  extrinsic  value 
as  historic  relics.  Mr.  Bernal's  collection 
had  a  world-wide  celebrity,  and  his  judg- 
ment was  acknowledged  all  over  Europe. 
In  a  few  introductory  lines  to  the  catalogue 
of  the  sale,  J.  R.  Planch6  thus  speaks  of  the 
xxvii 


Introductory 

friend  with  whom  he  had  been  associated  for 
thirty  years  : — "  Distinguished  among  Eng- 
lish antiquaries  by  the  perfection  of  his 
taste,  as  well  as  the  extent  of  his  knowledge, 
the  difficulty  of  imposing  upon  him  was 
increased  by  the  necessity  of  fabrication 
being  fine  enough  in  form,  colour,  or  work- 
manship to  rival  the  masterpiece  it  simu- 
lated— to  be,  in  fact,  itself  a  gem  of  art, 
which  it  would  not  pay  to  produce  as  a 
relic  of  antiquity."  The  entire  sale  realised 
close  on  ,£71,000.  Very  many  of  the  ar- 
ticles sold  for  far  more  than  Mr.  Bernal 
had  paid  for  them — a  proof  not  only  of  his 
skill  as  a  collector,  but  as  showing  that  the 
purchase  of  articles  of  vertu,  guided  by 
correct  taste  and  judgment,  generally  proves 
a  very  profitable  means  of  investment.  For 
instance,  about  400  lots  of  Majolica  ware, 
which  cost  Mr.  Bernal  1000  guineas,  realised 
at  his  sale  upwards  of  ^"7000 ;  Sir  Thomas 
More's  candlesticks,  bought  by  Mr.  Bernal 
for  twelve  guineas,  realised  220  guineas; 
King  Lothaire's  magic  crystal,  bought  by 
Mr.  Bernal  for  ten  guineas,  sold  for  220 
guineas.  Many  similar  instances  might  be 
quoted. 

During  the  last  few  years  a  number  of 

celebrated  collections  of  works  of  art  have 

come  into  the  market ;   first  and  foremost, 

the  Hamilton  sale  of  1882,  when  2213  lots 

xxviii 


Introductory 

brought  a  total  of  .£397,562,  or  about 
.£100,000  more  than  was  anticipated  by 
those  best  qualified  to  judge.  The  Beckett- 
Denison  collection  of  1885  realised  close 
on  £"70,000,  a  total  which,  as  a  whole,  shows 
a  very  great  loss  on  the  original  outlay. 
The  renowned  collection  formed  by  the  late 
Hollingworth  Magniac  realised,  in  July 
1892  (eleven  days'  sale),  the  large  sum  of 
.£103,000.  But  the  particulars  of  this  and 
many  other  recent  sales  of  famous  collec- 
tions of  works  of  art  are  too  easily  accessible 
to  require  any  further  reference  in  this  place. 

Collecting  has  long  since  taken  its  stand 
as  a  fashion — to  what  extent,  indeed,  may 
be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  during  the 
past  season  the  gross  proceeds  of  the  sale 
of  objects  of  art  at  one  place  in  London 
is  understood  to  be  about  £1,000,000.  It 
will  be  inferred  from  this  that  the  hobby 
of  collecting  is  one  that  requires  a  well- 
filled  pocket.  That  is  undoubtedly  true  so 
far  as  the  chefs-d '  ceuvre  of  the  various 
objects  of  art  are  concerned.  But  much 
good  sport,  and  an  infinite  variety  of 
charming  and  interesting,  as  well  as  decora- 
tive, objects  of  art  may  be  acquired  at  a 
very  small  cost  by  the  collector  who  pos- 
sesses a  fair  share  of  taste — and  common- 
sense. 


xxix 


Rare  Books 

and  their  Prices 


THE  origin  of  the  English  taste  in  books 
is  to  be  sought  out  of  England,  where  our 
forefathers  found  it  imperative  during  many 
centuries  to  go  in  order  to  complete,  not 
only  their  accomplishments,  but  their  educa- 
tion. The  schools  and  academies  of  the 
Continent  provided  English  gentlemen  with 
the  culture  which  they  were  long  unable 
to  obtain  at  home,  and  with  the  culture 
naturally  came  the  feeling  for  the  books 
which  were  collected  by  Italian,  German,  and 
Hollander.  These  were  mainly  the  Classics, 
and  at  first  the  insular  purchaser  satisfied 
himself  with  the  current  editions  produced 
at  Amsterdam,  Leyden,  Antwerp,  or  Leipsic. 
But  of  course  there  arrived  a  season  when 
certain  more  inquisitive  or  enthusiastic  minds 
began  to  call  for  the  texts  which  sprang  into 
existence  at  the  dawn  of  typography,  and 
united  with  their  literary  pretensions  archaso- 
logical  claims.  Collectors  kept  their  standard 


Rare  Books 

editions  for  use,  and  bought  editiones  prin- 
cipes  as  curiosities  and  treasures.  The  de- 
mand for  the  Greek  and  Roman  writers  was 
wide  and  lasting;  that  it  was  not  more  so, 
was  due  in  large  measure  to  our  universities 
and  to  men  who  had  received  university 
trainings.  In  the  earlier  half  of  the  last 
century,  Englishmen  are  found  turning  for 
the  first  time  seriously  to  the  consideration 
of  the  question  whether,  beside  the  foreign 
classics,  England  and  Scotland  had  none  of 
their  own.  The  movement  may  be  thought 
to  have  commenced  through  a  sentiment  of 
which  the  germ  is  traceable  to  such  spirits  as 
Jonson  and  Dryden  in  a  prior  age  in  favour 
of  the  neglected  genius  of  Shakespear,  while 
a  Dutch  Elzevir  cost  forty  times  as  much  as 
a  first  quarto,  and  an  edition  of  the  Fathers 
was  worth  more  than  all  the  early  English 
poets. 

It  was  such  men  as  Sir  Thomas  Hanmer, 
Theobald,  Pope,  Steevens,  Malone  who  fos- 
tered the  tendency  to  turn  to  the  authors 
born  on  English  ground,  the  predecessors 
and  contemporaries  of  the  Stratford  bard, 
and  to  treat  the  ancient  verse  and  prose 
writers  as  a  subsidiary  feature  in  their  libraries, 
if  not  in  their  thoughts.  But  the  yet  more 
powerful  influence,  perhaps,  in  winning  round 
our  countrymen  to  a  study  and  appreciation 
of  their  native  literature,  was  the  appearance 
2 


and  their   Prices 

about  1 20  years  ago  of  Warton's  "History 
of  English  Poetry,"  a  work  in  many  respects 
imperfect  and  unsatisfactory,  as  we  view  it 
to-day,  but  which  nevertheless  opened  the 
eyes  of  thousands  by  degrees  not  merely,  not 
even  so  much,  to  the  beauties  of  the  English 
school,  but  to  the  existence  of  such  a  thing ; 
and  what  a  marvellous  change  came  over  us 
from  that  time  forward !  Warton,  in  addi- 
tion to  his  account  of  our  poets,  incidentally 
referred  to  our  typographical  monuments  and 
to  the  precious  MSS.  which  our  public  and 
a  few  private  libraries  possessed ;  and  then 
there  was  Joseph  Ames,  who  in  1749  gaye 
to  us  his  "  Typographical  Antiquities," 
another  stimulus  in  the  same  direction,  and 
another  blow  to  the  foreign  classics. 

We  are  just  working  in  bare  outline.  We 
wish  simply  on  the  present  occasion  to  point 
out  some  of  the  phenomena  and  motives 
attendant  on  the  modern  modes  of  book- 
collecting,  where  men  of  fortune,  men  of 
rank,  men  of  business,  emulated  each  other 
in  forming  libraries,  from  which  the  classics 
were  not  excluded,  but  where  due  homage 
was  paid  to  the  vernacular  literature  of  Eng- 
land. Such  were  James  West,  Topham  Beau- 
clerk  (Johnson's  friend),  Major  Pearson,  the 
Duke  of  Roxburghe,  David  Garrick,  George 
Steevens,  the  Rev.  Jonathan  Boucher,  among 
hundreds  of  others  belonging  to  all  walks  of 
3 


Rare  Books 

life.  Above  and  beyond  them  all  towered 
the  incomparable  Heber,  not  only  a  collector 
and  bibliomaniac,  but  a  scholar  and  a  reader 
of  what  he  bought — a  man  who,  from  about 
1810  to  1833,  absorbed  everything  within 
reach  or  to  be  got  for  money,  and  some  of 
whose  acquisitions  constituted  the  gems  and 
stamina  of  the  Miller  and  Daniel  collections. 
The  histories  of  the  more  recent  libraries  in 
England  are  for  the  most  part  genealogical ; 
a  certain  number  of  unknown  books  or  edi- 
tions have  been  brought  to  light  since  Heber's 
time,  but  in  turning  over  the  pages  of  the 
Corser  or  Huth  catalogues,  for  instance,  you 
see  clearly  enough  that  the  provenance  is  the 
same ;  the  books  are  in  other  keeping ;  and 
in  the  case  of  the  Britwell  collection  it  is  not 
too  much  to  affirm  that  it  is  what  it  is  prin- 
cipally by  virtue  of  Heber. 

The  greater  part  of  books  do  not  die,  but 
exist  in  a  state  of  suspended  animation,  while 
they  happen  to  be  the  class  of  literature  for 
which  the  rulers  of  the  market  are  not  im- 
mediately calling.  As  with  old  china  and 
old  coins,  the  danger  is  that  a  more  or  less 
prolonged  interval  of  neglect  may  involve 
the  partial  destruction  of  a  not  very  large 
surviving  residue,  and  that  when  the  passion 
for  the  love  of  other  days  at  length  returns, 
the  means  of  satisfying  it  are  more  limited 
and  the  number  of  competitors  more  con- 
4 


and  their  Prices 

siderable.  Yet  this  condition  of  affairs  ought 
not  to  be  unwelcome  to  the  true  bibliomaniac ; 
it  should  suit  him  down  to  the  ground.  The 
only  exceptions  to  the  freedom  of  old  books 
from  mortality  are  to  be  looked  for  in  the 
regions  of  science  and  theology;  and  there 
the  form  often  conspires  with  the  subject- 
matter  to  harden  the  hearts  of  men  against 
a  restoration  to  favour.  Volumes  in  folio, 
though  they  be  of  that  mitigated  type  called 
pot,  require  a  very  powerful  brief  to  save  them 
from  the  kitchen-grate  or  the  paper-mill. 

We  have  it  on  the  authority  of  Leonard 
Fairfield's  friendly  bookseller  in  "My  Novel" 
that  "  those  who  buy  seldom  read,"  and  there 
can  be  very  little  doubt  about  the  fact  that 
the  collector's  reading  does  not  often  get 
beyond  what  printers  term  the  "  preliminary 
matter."  His  disinclination  to  read  is,  how- 
ever, to  be  regarded  as  a  virtue,  as,  if  in  times 
past  the  fraternity  had  been  consumed  with  a 
craze  for  reading  as  pronounced  as  that  for 
acquiring,  there  would  be  no  fine  or  spotless 
copies  of  anything  now  in  the  market.  Who 
would  at  present  think  of  reading  a  perfect 
Caxton,  a  first  quarto  Shakespear,  or  even 
an  editio  princeps  of  "  Modern  Painters  "  ? 
We  can  get  all  we  want  out  of  facsimiles 
or  cheap  reissues.  It  is  a  sufficient  satis- 
faction to  reflect  that  the  books  we  collect 
were  at  one  time  readable. 


Rare  Books 

The  motives  of  no  two  collectors  are 
precisely  identical.  The  object  may  be 
every  known  publication  of  certain  authors 
or  subjects,  and  the  aim  may  either  be  com- 
mercial or  intellectual.  Speaking  generally, 
the  specialist  who  rigidly  adheres  to  one 
phase  does  not  exist,  for  when  once  a  man 
has  been  bitten  with  the  incurable  disease  of 
book-collecting,  he  does  not  take  up  one 
subject  without  trenching  upon  at  least  a 
dozen  others.  But  every  collector,  what- 
ever his  particular  weakness,  has  a  sneaking 
regard  for  a  black-letter  book,  a  tall  copy, 
an  Elzevir — when  it  is  of  the  "  right "  date 
— and  for  an  editio  princeps  when  it  is 
to  be  had  cheap.  (Even  Mr.  Gladstone 
himself  has  confessed  to  a  weakness  for  a 
tall  copy.) 

Again,  two  men  may  each  form  a  collec- 
tion on  lines  as  nearly  as  possible  identical, 
and  yet  the  intellectual  results  may  bear  no 
comparison  one  with  another.  The  books  of 
the  one  may  have  no  extraordinary  interest, 
while  those  of  the  other  may  possess  marks 
of  distinguished  previous  owners,  or  may  have 
been  bound  by  an  eminent  binder,  or  be 
copies  perfect  down  to  the  minutest  particular. 
There  is  a  very  subtle  difference  between  a  tall 
copy  and  a  short  one,  as  the  owner  quickly 
finds  out  when  he  wants  to  sell ;  and  in  the 
case  of  "  Paradise  Lost "  it  has  been  dis- 
6 


and  their  Prices 

covered  that  no  less  than  nine  different  title- 
pages  were  issued  with  the  first  edition  in  the 
course  of  three  years.  It  would  seem  that  the 
sale  of  "Paradise  Lost "  was  exceedingly  slow, 
and  the  publisher  could  only  work  off  the  stock 
at  considerable  intervals,  each  new  bookseller 
naturally  demanding  a  fresh  title-page ;  hence 
the  number  of  issues  of  the  first  edition. 
Fortunately  this  is  a  very  unusual  contingency 
even  in  the  history  of  rare  books,  for  many 
examples  of  this  kind  would  render  book- 
collecting  an  almost  impossible  hobby. 

The  reproduction  of  first  editions  not  long 
since  became  a  trade,  and  a  somewhat  prolific 
source  of  trouble  to  the  novice  in  book- 
collecting  ;  whilst  facsimiled  leaves  have  the 
questionable  merit  of  too  closely  resembling 
the  missing  ones,  and  make  all  the  differ- 
ence in  the  value  of  the  book. 

The  dispersion  during  the  past  ten  or  a 
dozen  years  of  several  of  the  most  famous 
private  libraries  in  England  has  more  than 
sufficiently  emphasised  the  vast  difference 
between  books  with  and  books  without  first- 
class  bindings.  The  Beckford  and  Sunder- 
land  collections  may  be  cited  as  examples  in 
each  class  respectively;  but  they  are  both 
extraordinary  illustrations  of  the  value  of 
books  when  collected  with  discrimination. 
The  Sunderland  Library  was  formed  in  about 
twelve  years,  at  a  time — the  beginning  of 
7 


Rare  Books 

the  last  century — when  books  which  are  now 
almost  priceless  were  to  be  had  for  very  small 
sums.  It  came  under  the  hammer,  at  Messrs. 
Puttick  &  Simpson's,  between  December  1 8  8 1 
and  March  1883,  occupying  fifty-one  days, 
and  showing  a  total  of  ,£56,581,  6s.  for  about 
14,000  lots,  or  an  average  of  just  over  ^4 
each.  The  majority  of  these  books  were  in 
anything  but  first-class  condition,  chiefly  from 
the  fact  that,  for  over  a  century  after  being 
stored  in  the  library  at  Blenheim,  they  had 
been  subjected  to  the  devastation  of  a  scorch- 
ing sun  beating  down  upon  their  backs  through 
the  huge  windows,  and  had  been  so  completely 
undisturbed  that  birds  had  built  their  nests 
behind  the  rows  of  volumes.  A  provincial 
binder,  moreover,  had  in  many  instances  exer- 
cised his  depreciatory  influence  on  the  mar- 
gins, not  content  with  spoiling  the  exteriors. 
Apart  from  these  very  serious  drawbacks,  the 
insides  of  the  books  were  perfectly  clean. 
The  average,  and  consequently  the  total, 
would  have  been  far  higher,  had  the  volumes 
been  in  a  better  state  of  preservation. 

At  the  Beckford  sale,  at  Sotheby's  in 
1882-83,  9837  lots,  spread  over  a  period  of 
forty  days,  realised  a  total  of  ,£73,551,  i8s., 
or  an  average  nearly  double  that  of  the  Sun- 
derland  collection.  Beckford's  books  were 
often  splendidly  bound,  many  having  the 
devices  of  kings,  queens,  and  other  distin- 


and  their  Prices 

guished  previous  possessors.  Indeed,  Beck- 
ford  neglected  no  opportunity  or  expense  in 
obtaining  books  with  pedigrees,  and  their 
value  was  perhaps  enhanced  by  the  piquant 
or  sarcastic  notes  which  this  distinguished 
collector  made  on  the  fly-leaves  of  the  greater 
number  of  his  books ;  for  Beckford  was  an 
omnivorous  reader,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
author  of  "  Vathek  "  and  a  man  of  fortune. 
But  the  value  of  rare  books,  finely  bound, 
was  still  further  emphasised  in  the  Syston 
Park  Library.  This,  coming  under  the  ham- 
mer at  Sotheby's  in  1884,  and  consisting 
of  about  2000  books,  realised  a  total  of 
;£ 2 8,000,  or  an  average  of  ^14  each.  Sir 
John  Thorold  began  to  collect  books  during 
the  last  quarter  of  the  last  century,  and  his 
fine  judgment  and  exacting  taste  have  been 
very  amply  vindicated.  His  bindings  in- 
cluded specimens  by  the  two  Eves,  Le  Gascon, 
Monnier,  Dusseuil,  Boyet,  Padeloup,  Derome, 
Roger  Payne,  and  others.  The  Syston  Park 
sale  has  been  described  as  the  high-water  mark 
of  English  book-collecting,  and  this  judgment 
may  be  accepted  as  generally  correct.  But 
the  average  is  not  the  highest,  for  the  total 
amount  of  the  five  days'  sale  of  Baron  Seil- 
liere's  library  at  Sotheby's  in  February  1887 
brought  the  average  up  to  about  £16  per 
book — 1147  lots  realising  ,£15,000.  This 
is  the  highest  average  of  any  book  sale. 

9 


Rare  Books 

This  library  consisted  of  the  finest  collection 
of  early  romances  of  chivalry  and  ancient 
French  literature  which  has  ever  come  into  the 
market,  to  which  may  be  added  that  the  ex- 
quisite taste  displayed  in  the  binding  of  these 
books  surpassed  anything  of  the  kind  that 
has  ever  come  before  the  public  notice.  The 
Grolier  books  in  particular  fetched  very  high 
figures. 

As  a  contrast — undoubtedly  an  extreme 
one — to  the  foregoing  libraries,  the  sale  of 
the  first  two  portions  of  the  stock  of  the  late 
Mr.  Stibbs,  bookseller,  may  be  cited.  In 
eleven  days  during  1892  Messrs.  Sotheby  dis- 
posed of  lots  which  would  show  an  aggregate 
of  about  50,000  volumes,  with  a  net  result 
°f  ^3°34>  I55-  This  stock  was  almost 
exclusively  made  up  of  old  books  which  at 
one  time  formed  the  general  run  of  private 
libraries ;  many  of  them  were  once  much 
sought  after.  But  a  fairer  case  of  compari- 
son undoubtedly  occurs  in  the  recent  sale  of 
the  Apponyi  Library,  which,  formed  at  the 
beginning  of  the  present  century  by  an  accom- 
plished scholar,  Count  Antoine  Apponyi,  of 
Nagy  Appony,  Hungary,  was  transferred 
from  that  place  to  Messrs.  Sotheby's  rooms 
in  London.  In  five  days  in  November  1892, 
1359  lots  realised  a  total  of  ^3364,  or  rather 
less  than  £iy  IDS.  each.  Identical  editions 
of  many  of  the  books  in  this  sale  occurred 
10 


and  their  Prices 

also  in  the  Beckford  and  Syston  Park  libraries, 
and  an  analysis  of  the  prices  realised  at  the 
three  sales  would  appear  to  demonstrate  a 
lamentable  fall.  But  this  is  more  apparent 
than  real,  for  the  examples  of  fine  bindings 
in  the  Apponyi  Library  were  exceptionally 
few,  and  could  bear  no  comparison  with 
those  in  either  of  the  other  two  collections. 

As  a  general  rule,  the  editiones  principes 
do  not  sustain  their  old  market  value;  but 
a  certain  few,  particularly  the  most  ancient 
typographical  monuments,  and  some  of  the 
important  classic  authors  produced  at  Naples 
and  elsewhere  before  1470,  evince  a  ten- 
dency, at  all  events,  not  to  recede.  It  must 
be  admitted  that  there  is  something  super- 
latively attractive  in  a  first  edition,  coming, 
as  it  does,  fresh  from  the  author's  mind,  or 
as  a  first  triumph  of  typographical  effort. 
The  very  first  works  of  the  earliest  printers 
have  never  been  excelled  in  the  beauty  of 
their  execution,  and  they  will  for  all  time 
stand  as  an  incentive  as  well  as  a  reproach  to 
modern  printers.  It  is  of  these  incunabula 
and  other  early  printed  books  that  many  of 
the  great  private  English  libraries  have  been 
composed.  The  Sunderland  Library,  for 
example,  contained  a  bewildering  number — 
there  being  an  editio  princeps  of  nearly 
everything  worth  having,  and  a  series  of 
other  early  editions,  each  of  which  possessed 
ii 


Rare  Books 

some  special  feature.  To  take  a  few  illus- 
trations:  there  were  85  editions  of  Aristotle, 
40  of  St.  Augustine,  75  of  Ovid,  71  of 
Petrarch,  45  of  the  elder  Pliny,  79  of 
Homer,  and  1 8 1  of  Horace. 

The  Mazarin  Bible,  printed  by  Gutenberg 
and  Fust  circa  1450-55,  may  be  taken  as  an 
extreme  instance  of  the  enhanced  value  of 
the  editiones  principes.  At  the  Perkins  sale 
in  1873,  the  only  vellum  copy  then  known 
outside  a  public  library  sold  for  ^3400,  whilst 
a  copy  on  paper  fetched  ,£2690.  At  the 
Thorold  sale  a  magnificent  example  on  paper 
realised  the  extraordinary  sum  of  ^3900,  or 
^500  more  than  the  vellum  one;  in  1889 
the  Hopetoun  copy,  which  was  slightly  dam- 
aged, sold  for  ^2000;  and  in  March  1891 
the  Ives  copy,  with  fifteen  leaves  in  facsimile, 
for  14,800  dollars.  In  a  book  of  this  sort 
the  slightest  stain  or  incompleteness  of 
any  kind  makes  a  difference  of  hundreds 
of  pounds.  But  up  to  and  including  the 
first  quarter  of  the  present  century  its  price 
rarely  exceeded  ^100,  and  the  highest  figure 
was  6260  francs  paid  for  the  M'Carthy  copy, 
whilst  the  Gaignat  copy  on  vellum  only 
realised  1200  francs  in  1769.  The  first 
edition  of  the  Latin  Bible  with  a  date, 
printed  by  Fust  and  Schceffer  in  1462,  may 
also  be  cited  here.  The  Gaignat  copy  on 
vellum,  sold  in  1769  for  3200  francs;  the 

12 


and  their  Prices 

Edwards  copy,  also  on  vellum,  in  1815  for 
^175;  in  1823  a  very  fine  example  reached 
^"215;  in  1873  the  Perkins  copy  (which 
had  cost  its  owner  ^173)  sold  for  ^780, 
and  eight  years  later  the  Sunderland  example, 
on  vellum,  was  knocked  down  for  ^1600. 
A  still  more  notable  illustration  occurs  in 
connection  with  the  Psalmorum  Codex^ 
printed  by  Fust  and  SchoefFer  in  1459,  and 
this  is  remarkable  as  having  been  acquired 
by  Mr.  Quaritch  at  the  highest  sum  ever 
paid  for  a  single  book,  viz.,  ^4950.  It  is 
the  second  book  printed  with  a  date,  and  is 
undoubtedly  the  grandest  specimen  of  the 
typographic  art  in  existence.  It  is  one 
of  the  rarest  of  the  early  monuments  of 
printing,  and  beside  it  the  Mazarin  Bible 
is  a  comparatively  common  book;  its  rarity 
will  be  clearly  understood  when  it  is  stated 
that  this  copy,  which  belonged  to  Sir  John 
Thorold,  is  the  only  one  that  has  occurred 
in  the  market.  It  sold  for  3350  francs  in 
the  M'Carthy  sale,  for  ^136,  IDS.  in  that 
of  Sir  M.  Sykes,  and  it  still  remains,  we 
believe,  in  Mr.  Quaritch's  hands.  Another 
of  the  earliest  printed  works  may  be  here 
cited :  the  Catholicon^  1460,  one  of  the  few 
indubitable  productions  of  Gutenberg's  press, 
and  for  which  Sir  John  Thorold  paid  ^65,  2s. ; 
it  realised  at  his  sale  no  less  than  ^400. 
The  editions  of  the  English  Bible  printed 

13 


Rare  Books 

during  the  earlier  half  of  the  sixteenth 
century  maintain  high  prices,  but  anything 
like  a  fair  comparison  is  difficult,  as  the 
copies  which  have  come  under  the  hammer 
during  the  last  fifty  years  vary  very  much  in 
the  degree  to  which  they  are  imperfect.  The 
theory  that  reading  a  book  sometimes  be- 
comes a  deadly  sin,  assumes  a  very  practical 
form  in  connection  with  the  early  English 
Bibles;  and  the  extreme  rarity  of  perfect 
copies  is  the  best — or,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
collector,  the  worst — possible  proof  of  its 
extreme  popularity  with  our  forefathers  as  a 
book  to  read.  The  editio  princeps  of  the 
complete  English  version,  1535,  realised 
^400  at  the  Perkins  sale,  and  was  presum- 
ably perfect ;  an  example  with  eight  leaves 
facsimiled,  but  offering  one  of  the  finest  speci- 
mens of  Bedford's  bindings,  is  now  priced  at 
^300;  but  an  absolutely  complete  example 
would  probably  bring  over  ^1000. 

Among  first  editions  of  secular  books  the 
Valdarfer  Boccaccio  of  1471  stands  well 
in  the  front  rank.  Of  this  excessively  rare 
book  only  one  perfect  copy  is  known,  and 
there  are  less  than  half-a-dozen  imperfect 
ones  in  existence.  At  the  Roxburghe  sale 
in  1812  the  enormous  sum  of  ^2260  was 
paid  for  a  copy  of  this  book  by  the  Mar- 
quis of  Blandford.  Seven  years  afterwards 
the  same  copy  went  for  ^918,  155.  Even 


and  their  Prices 

this  figure  is  extremely  high.      It  cost  the 
Duke  of  Roxburghe  100  guineas.     A  copy, 
the    tallest    known,    but    with    five    leaves 
missing,  and  several  others  mended,  sold  in 
March   1891  for  .£230.     Almost  as  rare  as 
the  Valdarfer  Boccaccio  is  the  first  edition 
with  a  date  of  Virgil,  printed  by  Vindelin 
de  Spira  at  Venice  in  1470,  the  Sunderland 
copy  of  which  now  figures  in  a  catalogue  at 
;£iooo,  while  the  Ives  copy  was  knocked 
down  in  1891  for  3000  dollars — both  being 
printed  on  vellum.     Just  a  century  ago,  in 
the  Crevenna  sale,  a  copy  of  this  fetched 
4150  francs,  but  for  nearly  fifty  years  after- 
wards the  few  copies  that  turned  up  only 
realised  about  half  that  amount,  and  in  one 
instance   it   went   as   low   as    1301    francs. 
Equally  splendid,  from  a  typographic  point 
of  view,  and  equally  interesting,  though  by 
no   means   so   rare,   is   the   first  edition  of 
Homer,  printed   in   Greek   at   Florence  in 
1488.      The  Duke  of  Grafton's  copy  sold 
in    1819   for  ^69,  and  the  highest  figure 
paid  for  one  until  lately  was   3601   francs 
for  an  uncut  copy  in  the  Cotte  sale,  1804. 
The  copy — one  of  the  finest  in  existence — 
#for  which  Mr.  Wodhull  paid  15  guineas  in 
1770,  realised  ^"200  at  the  sale  of  his  library 
in  1886.     The  first  edition  of  the  first  book 
printed  in  Greek — the  Grammatica  Grceca 
of  Lascaris,    Milan,    1476,   of  which   only 


Rare  Books 

about  six  copies  are  known,  was  sold  at  the 
Heber  sale,  1834,  for  the  then  high  sum 
of  ^34,  whilst  in  the  half-century  which 
followed  its  value  had  increased  threefold, 
the  Thorold  example  going  for  ^105.  It 
is  one  of  the  rarest  books  in  existence,  and 
in  the  preface  to  the  Aldine  edition  of  1494 
it  was  even  then  stated  that  "no  copies  of 
this  edition  could  be  procured  after  the 
most  diligent  search."  Dr.  Burney's  copy 
of  this  valuable  book  is  now  in  the  British 
Museum.  The  first  edition  of  Ovid,  printed 
at  Bologna,  1471,  is  perhaps  the  rarest  of 
all  the  editiones  principes  of  the  classics, 
only  one  perfect  copy  being  known,  and 
even  the  odd  parts  or  volumes  of  this  shew 
a  marked  increase  in  value  during  the  past 
few  years.  The  first  edition  of  Pliny's  His- 
toria  Naturalis^  Venice,  1469,  of  which  the 
Thorold  copy  sold  for  ^57,  is  far  more  easy 
to  obtain. 

It  is  one  of  the  phenomena  in  the  annals 
of  book-buying  that  the  productions  of  the 
Aldine  press,  unless  they  are  on  vellum  or 
of  some  special  character,  should  have  at 
all  declined  in  popularity.  The  first  edition 
of  the  first  book  printed  by  Aldus,  the* 
Musczi  Opusculum  de  Herone  et  Leandro^ 
Venice,  1494,  is  worth  from  ^"36  to 
^42  ;  fine  copies  rarely  occur  in  the  sale- 
room, but,  curiously  enough,  it  is  usually 
16 


and  their  Prices 

in  good  condition  :  here,  again,  the  virtue 
of  the  non-reading  collector  comes  out  in 
bold  relief.  It  is  very  different  with  the 
first  edition  of  the  Aldine  "Virgil,"  1501, 
notable  as  being  the  first  book  printed  in 
italic  characters :  it  is  practically  impos- 
sible to  obtain  a  perfect  copy,  both  the 
Beckford  and  the  Hamilton  examples  being 
incomplete;  a  very  good  example  is 
priced  at  ^155  (the  Ives  example,  which 
was  perfect,  only  fetched  250  dollars), 
about  one-fourth  the  value  placed  upon  it 
a  quarter  of  a  century  ago.  The  Hyp- 
nerotomachia  Poliphili^  printed  by  Aldus 
in  1499,  is  sought  less  on  account  of  its 
typographical  than  its  graphic  interest,  the 
engravings  being  of  a  peculiar  type,  which 
recommends  it  to  the  collector.  In  this 
case  the  tendency  is  distinctly  an  upward 
one.  Condition  being  everything,  the  copies 
sold  during  the  past  few  years  shew  con- 
siderable fluctuation  ;  but  a  very  inferior 
copy  now  realises  four  times  as  much  as  a 
perfect  one  fifty  years  ago,  when  several,  by 
no  means  poor  copies,  changed  hands  for 
^"5  each.  Mr.  Quaritch  tells  us  that  the 
copy  for  which  Mr.  Cheney  paid  him  ^"45, 
sold  six  or  seven  years  after  for  ^119 ;  the 
Beckford  realised  ^130,  and  the  exception- 
ally fine  example  in  the  late  R.  S.  Turner's 
library  sold  for  ^137. 

17  B 


Rare  Books 

Notwithstanding  the  perhaps  permanent 
fall  in  the  estimation  of  normal  Aldines,  that 
of  exceptional  copies  is  unaffected.  For 
example,  ten  or  twelve  guineas  would  be  a 
fair  price  for  the  first  Aldine  "Lucretius," 
1500,  but  Grolier's  copy  of  the  second 
edition  realised,  a  few  years  ago,  ^300.  The 
difference  is  purely  external,  and  to  a  great 
extent  abstract,  but  it  is  there  neverthe- 
less. 

It  is  the  same  with  the  Elzevirs.  Even 
the  "  best "  editions  of  these  frightfully 
inaccurate  but  delightful  little  books  are 
now  at  a  lamentable  discount,  and  with 
only  their  past  reputations  to  commend 
them.  In  January  1890  a  parcel  of  twenty- 
six  Elzevirs  realised  a  less  average  than  is. 
each.  Almost  the  only  exception  to  this 
general  downfall  is  Le  Pastissier  Fran- 
fotSy  1665  (of  which  about  forty  copies  are 
known),  of  which,  in  1780,  a  copy  sold  for 
4  francs ;  in  1819  the  Marlborough  example 
went  for  £iy  45.;  in  1828  Sensier's  realised 
128  francs,  and  nine  years  later  201  francs; 
then  the  old  vellum  binding  was  substi- 
tuted for  a  very  beautiful  covering  by 
Trautz-Bauzonnet,  and  in  1870  it  brought 
2910  francs;  and  then,  five  years  later,  in 
the  Benzon  sale,  it  advanced  to  3255  francs. 
But  in  1877,  when  it  once  more  came  into 
the  market,  it  fell  to  2200  francs.  The 
18 


and  their  Prices 

highest  price  paid  for  Le  Pastissier  is 
10,000  francs,  at  which  absurd  sum  it  was 
sold  a  few  years  ago  in  Paris. 

Turning  from  books  issued  in  foreign  coun- 
tries to  those  of  a  more  immediate  English 
interest,  the  works  of  Caxton  naturally  come 
first.  There  are  about  560  examples  in 
existence  of  England's  first  printer.  Of  this 
number  about  four-fifths  are  in  the  British 
Museum,  at  Cambridge  and  Oxford,  in  the 
Duke  of  Devonshire's  and  the  Earl  of  Dy- 
sart's  libraries,  and  in  the  Rylands  (plim 
Spencer)  collection  at  Manchester.  Out  of 
this  total  thirty-one  are  unique,  and  seven 
exist  only  in  a  fragmentary  form.  It  is 
obvious,  therefore,  that  whatever  changes 
may  occur  in  the  fashion,  Caxtons  cannot  be 
expected  to  decline  in  value.  The  prices  at 
which  these  books  have  been  sold  at  different 
times  afford  some  striking  comparisons.  At 
the  Watson  Taylor  and  Perry  {Morning 
Chronicle]  library  sales  in  1823,  five  examples, 
nearly  all  fine  copies,  of  Caxton's  books 
realised  a  total  of  £ 291,  155.  These  books 
were  "The  Life  of  Jason,"  1476-77  (^95, 
us.),  "The  Book  called  Caton,"  1483 
(^30,  195.  6d.),  "  Troylus  and  Cresside," 
1484  (;£66),  and  a  very  fine  and  perfect 
copy  of  Virgil's  "Eneidos,"  1490  (^46, 
143.  6d.).  Of  the  first  two  there  are  only 
six  copies  of  each  known ;  of  the  third, 

19 


Rare  Books 

twelve  examples ;  of  the  fourth,  four  copies, 
and  of  the  fifth  eighteen  copies.  There 
are  no  available  records  of  any  of  the 
first  four  having  been  sold  during  recent 
years,  and  it  is  curious  to  note  that  of  the 
least  rare,  the  "Eneidos,"  Mr.  Quaritch 
priced  a  copy  in  1877  at  ^300.  Although 
the  increasing  value  of  Caxtons  is  a  fact 
which  does  not  need  much  demonstration, 
it  will  be  of  general  interest  to  quote  a  few 
more  illustrations  in  this  connection.  The 
highest  sum  ever  paid  for  a  Caxton  is 
^1950,  at  which  the  Harleian  copy,  and  the 
only  perfect  one  known,  of  "  King  Arthur," 
1485,  was  knocked  down  at  the  sale  of  Lord 
Jersey's  books  in  1885.  Unfortunately,  and 
to  the  lasting  disgrace  of  England,  it  was 
secured  by  an  American  collector,  whose 
widow,  Mrs.  Pope,  has  since  parted  with 
his  books  more  vzduarum.  At  the  same  sale 
one  of  twenty  examples  (of  which  only  three 
are  perfect)  of  the  first  book  printed  in 
English,  the  "Histories  of  Troy,"  realised 
;£i82o;  in  1812  the  Duke  of  Devonshire 
gave  ;£io6o,  I2s.  for  a  copy  wanting  the 
last  leaf,  which  had  belonged  to  the  queen 
of  Edward  IV.,  and  for  which  the  Duke  of 
Roxburghe  had  paid  ^50  a  few  years  pre- 
viously!  In  1885  a  very  imperfect  example 
of  Higden's  Polychronicon^  1482,  realised 
the  high  figure  of  ^66,  but  Mr.  Quaritch 
20 


and  their  Prices 

values  the  best  of  the  three  perfect  copies 
known  at  ^500;  the  Perkins  copy  sold  in 
1873  for  ^365,  but  the  same  example  ap- 
pears to  have  depreciated  slightly  in  value 
by  crossing  over  to  America,  inasmuch  as  it 
only  realised  1500  dollars  at  the  Ives  sale  in 
1891.  In  1868  the  Rev.  T.  Corser's  copy 
of  the  "Dictes  and  Sayings,"  1477,  the  first 
English  book  which  bears  a  plain  statement 
of  place  and  time  of  its  execution,  sold  for 
;£no;  the  Earl  of  Jersey's  copy  in  1885 
fetched  ^350,  whilst  the  Duke  of  Buc- 
cleuch's  copy,  four  years  later,  sold  for 
^650.  Neither  of  the  first  two  was  com- 
plete. "  The  Mirrour  of  the  World,"  1481, 
of  which  only  sixteen  copies  are  known  to 
exist,  is  also  a  book  which  shows  a  steady 
rise  in  value.  The  Duke  of  Devonshire's 
perfect  copy  many  years  ago  cost  ^351,  ifs., 
whilst  the  Syston  Park  example,  which  was 
not  quite  perfect,  sold  in  1884  for  .£335. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  "  one  of  the  rarest 
and  most  intrinsically  valuable  "  of  Caxton's 
productions,  Gower's  Confessio  A  mantis, 
1483,  of  which  only  five  perfect  (and  twelve 
imperfect)  copies  are  in  existence,  and  of 
these  Lord  Selsey's,  in  old  calf  binding,  in 
1872  fetched  ^670,  and  Lord  Jersey's  in 
1885,  ;£8io.  A  copy,  imperfect  only  to 
the  extent  of  having  one  leaf  in  facsimile, 
is  catalogued  at  ^380.  Lord  Chancellor 
21 


Rare  Books 

Hardwicke's  imperfect  copy  of  the  "  Game 
and  Playe  of  the  Chesse"  sold  in  1884  for 
^260;  a  century  ago  a  perfect  example  was 
purchased  for  ^30,  os.  6d. 

The  works  of  Shakespear,  so  far  as  the 
original  quartos  and  folios  are  concerned, 
yield  to  no  other  in  their  advance  in  price 
among  book-fanciers ;  at  the  time  of  publica- 
tion theformerwere  obtainable  for  a  few  pence. 
At  George  Daniel's  sale  quartos  which  had 
cost  ^"40  realised  between  ^"300  and  ^400. 
But  even  at  the  Steevens  sale  in  1800  there 
was  a  foretaste,  amid  low  figures  given  for 
many  distinguished  rarities,  of  what  was 
coming,  and  of  what  we  still  feel  and  see. 
The  same  upward  tendency  is  witnessed  in 
regard  to  the  folios.  A  fairly  good  example 
of  the  first,  published  under  the  editorship  of 
Heming  and  Condell  in  1623,  might  have 
been  had  fifty  years  ago  for  under  ^"30;  a 
fine  copy  at  the  Roxburghe  sale,  1812,  went 
for  ;£ioo,  just  a  fifth  of  what  many  collectors 
to-day  would  give  for  a  similar  one;  the 
Thorold  example  (13^  x  8|  inches),  was  one 
of  the  largest  and  finest  known,  and  it  sold  for 
^590.  A  bookseller  has  priced  "a  match- 
less copy"  at  ;£i2OO.  Mr.  Locker-Lamp- 
son's  is  an  equally  splendid  copy,  and  is 
scarcely  inferior  to  that  in  the  possession  of 
the  Baroness  Burdett  -  Coutts.  Quite  the 
finest  example  known  up  to  the  present  is 

22 


and  their  Prices 

in  possession  of  Mr.  C.  J.  Toovey,  it  being 
both  broader  and  taller  than  any  recorded 
copy,  whilst  very  many  of  its  leaves  are 
absolutely  uncut.  The  second,  third,  and 
fourth  folios  are  also  relatively  dearer.  The 
second,  dated  1632,  varied,  till  within  the 
last  twenty-five  years,  between  £$  and  £1$, 
at  which  latter  sum  the  Roxburghe  copy 
was  knocked  down.  Two  examples  (neither 
absolutely  correct),  which  have  occurred  in 
the  last  two  seasons,  were  the  Cosens,  ^62, 
and  the  Ives  (New  York),  400  dollars.  The 
third  folio,  1664,  which  is  really  the  rarest, 
sold  forty  or  fifty  years  ago  for  about 
.£20  or  ,£30 ;  the  Ives  copy,  which  for- 
merly belonged  to  John  Philip  Kemble, 
brought  950  dollars ;  and  another,  Mr.  Gais- 
ford's,  went  for  ;£i68.  A  copy  was  sold  at 
Christie's  in  June  1894  among  Sir  J.  Hay 
Langham's  books.  The  seven  doubtful 
plays,  which  are  usually  omitted  in  copies 
of  the  first  issue,  were  at  the  end  of  the 
copy  in  question,  and  were  preceded  by  the 
title,  dated  1664;  its  height  was  I3fx8|, 
and  it  realised  the  record  price  of  ^435. 

Perfect  copies  even  of  the  fourth  folio, 
1685,  which  at  one  time  could  have  been 
had  in  plenty  for  ^5,  and  which  is  of  no 
special  interest  or  value,  have  sympatheti- 
cally risen,  the  Gaisford  copy  realising 
and  the  Ives  210  dollars. 

23 


Rare  Books 

Of  the  miscellaneous  early  English  writers, 
especially  those  of  high  rank,  the  value  is  at 
present  far  higher  than  it  used  to  be,  partly 
from  the  augmented  competition  for  a  limited 
supply.  The  earliest  issues  of  Spenser  and 
Milton,  for  instance,  have  more  than  quad- 
rupled in  value  within  a  few  years.  In  some 
instances  this  has  been  exceeded  in  a  few 
months.  In  June  1889,  a  copy  of  the  ex- 
tremely rare  first  edition  of  Richard  Love- 
lace's "Lucasta,"  1649,  sold  by  auction  for 
;£6,  i2s.  6d. ;  in  May  1892  another  example 
realised  ^44,  and  both  possessed  all  the 
beautifully  engraved  plates.  It  is  the  same 
with  the  earliest  impressions  of  Walton's 
"Compleat  Angler,"  1653.  Referring  to 
a  catalogue  published  by  Mr.  Quaritch  in 
1879,  we  find  a  fine  copy  in  red  morocco 
extra  priced  at  ^52,  with  an  apologetic  foot- 
note to  the  effect  that  it  is  twenty  years  since 
a  copy  "  last  occurred  for  sale,"  excepting  the 
copy  which  was  included  in  the  set  of  five 
editions  sold  at  Tite's  sale  for  ^68,  and 
afterwards  at  Crawford's  for  £100.  Of  that 
set,  the  first  edition  constituted  fully  three- 
quarters  of  the  entire  value.  In  1889  one 
realised  .£180,  and  in  1891  another  (with 
which  went  Cotton's  "  Complete  Angler," 
1676)  for  ^310,  and  a  third  in  May  1892 
for  ;£2io. 

Certain  eighteenth  -  century  books  fetch 
24 


and  their   Prices 

even  more  in  proportion.  The  first  edi- 
tion of  Goldsmith's  "  Vicar  of  Wakefield," 
1766,  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago  could 
have  been  purchased  for  ^5  ;  eight  or  nine 
years  ago  almost  twice  that  sum  would  not 
have  been  considered  excessive;  in  1891  a 
copy  sold  at  Sotheby's  for  ^90,  and  in  May 

1892  another   at   the  same   place   went   to 
^"94.     Gray's  famous  "Elegy,"  1751,  which 
was  originally  sold  for  sixpence,  jumped  from 
£36  in  1888  to  ^"59  in  1892,  and  when  the 
next  copy  came  into  the  market  in  December 

1893  it  sold  for  ^74.     The  first  editions  of 
Fielding,  Smollett,  Sterne,  Swift,  and  Defoe, 
(in   "  Robinson   Crusoe "  the   set   of  three 
volumes  should  be  all  of  the  first  edition  and 
in  good  state)  are  good  or  bad  investments 
just  as  they  happen  to  be  acquired.     The 
"  curious "  class  of  printed  matter  in  which 
the  last  century  was  so  prolific  is  in  fairly 
great   demand    just   for    the   moment,    and 
notably  the  memoirs,  real  or  imaginary,  of 
some  only  too  well-known  actor  or  actress. 
As  an  example,  "  The  Memoirs  of  his  Life," 
by  Theophilus  Keene,   1718,  sold  for  £17 
in  1889,  whereas  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago 
George  Daniel's  copy  did  not  realise  many 
more  shillings.     The  "Memoirs"  and  the 
"Apology  for  her  Life,"  1785-86,  of  Mrs. 
G.  A.  Bellamy,  or  the  "  Authentick,"  as  well 
as  the "  Faithful"  Memoirs,  1730-3 1 ,  of  Mrs. 

25 


Rare  Books 

A.  Oldfield,  and  similar  records  are  "  placed  " 
at  high  prices. 

A  development  of  another  kind  is  in 
"  Americana."  As  a  country  gets  richer  its 
taste  for  the  extraneous  attributes  which  go 
to  make  life  worth  living  becomes  more  and 
more  pronounced.  This  taste  has  been  fos- 
tered in  the  true  scientific  manner  by  such 
distinguished  bibliographers  as  the  late  Henry 
Stevens  of  Vermont  and  by  such  liberal 
patrons  as  the  munificent  founders  of  the 
Lenox  and  other  libraries.  For  anything  of 
real  or  supposed  importance  relating  to  the 
country  Americans  will  pay  a  fair  price ;  but 
London  is  the  next  best  market  for  "  Ameri- 
cana." Indeed,  periodical  consignments  of  rare 
books,  including  "Americana,"  are  shipped 
to  London  for  sale.  Very  many  incidents  of 
the  greatest  interest  might  be  cited  in  con- 
nection with  this  development,  but  there  is 
space  for  one  only,  as  indicating  the  high  and 
low  water  marks.  This  occurred  when  the 
books  of  the  late  Lord  Chancellor  Hard- 
wicke's  library  were  sold  at  Christie's  in  1888. 
Among  others  there  was  an  unprepossessing 
small  quarto  volume  consisting  of  a  dozen 
tracts  bound  up  together.  These  tracts 
chiefly  related  to  American  affairs,  and  were 
published  in  London  between  1583  and  1657; 
and  the  lot  was  knocked  down  for  the  extra- 
ordinary sum  of  £$SS-  On  tne  °tner  hand, 
26 


and  their  Prices 

in  1886  the  Somers  tracts  in  30  folio  volumes, 
containing  some  of  the  rarest  "  Americana  " 
in  the  finest  state,  fetched  only  ;£6i.  There 
is  no  class  in  the  world  who  in  one  respect 
more  implicitly  obey  the  Scriptural  injunc- 
tion, "  Look  unto  the  rock  whence  ye  are 
hewn,  and  to  the  hole  of  the  pit  whence 
ye  are  digged,"  than  the  Americans.  Fortu- 
nately they  are  in  a  position  to  pay  for  it. 
For  many  years  past  American  collectors  have 
been  draining  England  of  rare  books  and 
manuscripts,  and  more  particularly  of  works 
relating  to  British  genealogy  and  county 
history. 

The  changes  which  inevitably  occur  in 
every  line  of  life,  intellectual  and  material, 
are  also  extended  to  book-collecting,  and 
extended  in  a  very  marked  and  significant 
manner.  The  old  loves  have  to  a  certain 
extent  been  abandoned,  and  the  new  genera- 
tion has  gone  in  heavily  for  the  first  editions 
of  modern  authors. 

The  attraction  of  a  first  edition  over  the 
second  or  subsequent  issues  falls  into  the 
category  of  things  which  are  not  explainable 
on  ordinary  principles.  The  charm  is  so 
much  a  matter  of  feeling,  that  any  attempt 
to  justify  it  can  nearly  invariably  be 
seized  upon  and  used,  or  rather  turned 
against  it  by  the  utilitarian.  Book-buy- 
ing has  been  described  as  one  of  the  few 
27 


Rare  Books 

passions  which  require  neither  apology  nor 
defence ;  and  of  all  the  many  attempts 
which  have  been  made  to  excuse  this 
most  fascinating  hobby,  we  have  'never  yet 
come  across  one  which  has  either  satis- 
fied the  collector  or  silenced  the  Philistine. 
We  do  not  propose,  therefore,  attempting  a 
justification  which  could  readily  be  converted 
into  a  condemnation.  The  cult  of  first 
editions  has  nevertheless  many  tangible  and 
logical  reasons  which  may  be  urged  in  its 
favour,  so  long,  of  course,  as  the  cult  is  not 
carried  to  excess.  A  first  edition  often 
possesses  an  attraction  which  is  much  more 
than  sentimental,  for  the  very  paper  on 
which  it  is  printed  may  be  no  longer  manu- 
factured, the  type  used  in  its  composition 
may  be  no  longer  in  vogue,  and  the  cover 
in  which  the  book  is  bound  may  have  been 
manufactured  out  of  a  material  which  is  not 
only  gone  out  of  fashion,  but  which  is  no 
longer  possible  to  procure.  These  attributes, 
singly  or  combined,  are  naturally  esteemed  as 
bringing  our  sons  or  grandsons  nearer  than 
any  amount  of  written  description  to  our 
own  "  old  "  times.  Even  the  old  divines  are 
tolerable  in  their  quaint  typographic  dress 
of  two  or  more  centuries  ago:  the  "Pilgrim's 
Progress,"  "Paradise  Lost,"  "Gulliver's 
Travels,"  and  Walton's  "  Compleat  Angler" 
are  positively  intolerable  in  their  modern 
28 


and  their  Prices 

disguises;  they  are,  indeed,  as  offensive  to 
good  taste  as  a  very  old  man  rigged  out  in 
the  most  modern  of  fin-de-siecle  dress,  and 
aping  the  manners  (such  as  they  are)  of  a 
period  with  which  he  has  absolutely  nothing 
in  common.  A  writer  in  the  Speaker  has 
described  the  "  mania "  for  first  editions  as 
a  "purely  spiritual  joy,"  and,  as  with  all 
spiritual  joys,  the  experience  thereof  is  a 
thing  of  feeling  and  not  of  argument. 

The  first  editions  of  Dickens  and  Thacke- 
ray are  no  longer  the  rage  of  the  collecting 
public,  and  their  decline  to  what  may  be 
termed  a  common-sense  value  is  a  matter 
for  congratulation.  The  first  editions  of 
these  authors  now  realise  very  high  prices 
when  they  possess  some  extraneous  matter. 
It  makes  a  wonderful  difference,  for  example, 
whether  they  possess  the  printed  covers  and 
the  advertisements  of  the  original  parts,  or 
whether  they  are  minus  these  things. 

If  a  copy  of  "  Oliver  Twist "  possesses  the 
cancelled  and  the  substituted  plate  depicting 
Rose  Maylie,  Oliver,  and  others  sitting  in 
front  of  a  fire — a  plate  which  appeared  in  a 
few  copies  of  the  earliest  issue  of  the  third 
volume — the  result,  when  it  comes  to  selling, 
will  be  very  different  from  what  it  would 
be  without  that  plate.  The  Memoirs  of 
Joseph  Grimaldi,  edited  by  Boz,  is  quite  a 
different  book  in  the  eyes  of  a  collector  when 
29 


Rare  Books 

the  plate  of  the  "Last  Song"  is  with  the 
pantomimic  figures  round  the  etching.  So 
also  in  the  case  of  "  Martin  Chuzzlewit,"  of 
which  the  more  valuable  copies  of  the  first 
edition  have  the  transposed  £  in  the  reward 
on  the  engraved  title.  The  first  edition  of 
"Pickwick"  may  be  taken  as  an  illustration 
of  the  intricacies  of  the  science  of  editiones 
principes.  The  "  Pickwick  Papers  "  origin- 
ally came  out  in  twenty  shilling  monthly 
parts,  commencing  in  April  1836,  and  ending 
in  November  of  the  following  year.  After 
Seymour  had  etched  seven  plates  for  this 
work  he  committed  suicide,  and  the  task  was 
committed  to  Buss,  whose  two  plates,  "  The 
Cricket  Match,"  p.  69,  and  "  Arbour  Scene," 
p.  74,  were  not  considered  satisfactory. 
Hablot  K.  Browne  then  took  the  place  of 
Buss,  and  etched  thirty-six  plates,  so  that 
the  total  number  of  illustrations  amounts  to 
forty-three,  to  which  are  frequently  added 
the  Buss  plates  just  mentioned,  though  they 
only  appear  in  the  earlier  copies  of  the  third 
number.  While  the  parts  were  in  course 
of  publication,  the  author  addressed  several 
communications  to  his  readers,  and  these  are 
found  in  Numbers  2,  3,  10,  and  15;  these 
addresses  are  an  important  item  in  the  make- 
up of  a  genuine  first  edition.  Good  copies 
of  "  Pickwick  "  in  the  original  being  scarce, 
care  must  be  taken  to  see  that  the  contents 
30 


and  their  Prices 

are  in  every  way  perfect,  special  attention 
being  directed  to  the  plates.  The  first  seven 
of  these  are,  as  already  pointed  out,  by  Sey- 
mour, the  following  two  (in  a  few  numbers  of 
part  3)  by  Buss,  and  the  remaining  thirty-six 
by  Hablot  K.  Browne,  or  "  Phiz."  It  must 
be  remembered  that  not  one  of  these  plates, 
as  originally  issued,  bore  any  title ;  and 
further,  that  the  8th,  9th,  loth,  and  nth 
plates  in  Numbers  3  and  4  are  said  to  bear 
Browne's  first  sobriquet,  "  Nemo,"  which  he 
then  used  for  the  last  time.  The  two  Buss 
plates  are,  like  the  rest,  destitute  of  any 
lettering.  If  they  are  printed  off  on  buff- 
coloured  paper  they  are  probably  spurious, 
though  there  are  facsimile  reprints  on  white 
paper  as  well,  and  great  care  must  be  taken 
with  regard  to  these.  One  peculiarity  about 
the  first  limited  issue  is  that  the  name  "  Wel- 
ler"  on  the  signboard  of  "The  Marquis 
Granby,"  which  appears  as  a  vignette  on  the 
title,  is  spelt  "  Veller,"  the  W  being  substi- 
tuted for  the  V  in  all  subsequent  issues.  It 
should  also  be  pointed  out  that  in  some 
copies  of  the  original  edition  each  plate  has 
its  appropriate  inscription  at  the  foot,  that 
Browne's  sobriquet  "  Phiz "  takes  the  place 
of  that  of  "  Nemo,"  and  that  the  plates  in 
one  copy  may  vary  from  the  corresponding 
plates  in  another ;  all  are  genuine.  These 
distinctions  arise  by  reason  of  alterations 

31 


Rare  Books 

made  in  the  plates  by  the  artist  as  the  pub- 
lication proceeded ;  and  as  issue  followed 
issue  in  rapid  succession,  each  was  marked 
by  some  characteristic  of  its  own.  All  may 
be  genuine,  but  it  is  only  the  earlier  issues 
that  excite  great  competition,  and  only  the 
very  earliest  that  sell  for  large  sums  of  money. 
An  ideal  copy  may  realise  about  ^30,  good 
copies  £6  or  ^"7,  and  ordinary  copies  ^"3,  or 
even  less.  We  have  condensed  the  foregoing 
facts  from  Mr.  Slater's  excellent  work  on 
"  Early  Editions,"  as  showing  how  important 
it  is  to  fully  understand  the  many  minutiae 
which  go  to  make  up  an  ideal  first  edition, 
which,  however,  as  with  other  things,  may 
sometimes  experience  a  considerable  "fall." 
For  example,  the  copy  which  sold  in  the  late 
F.  A.  Marshall's  library  in  1890  for  ^31,  55. 
only  fetched  ^21,  los.  when  it  again  came 
into  the  market  in  1893.  The  remarkable 
fact  about  ordinary  first  editions  of  Dickens 
and  Thackeray,  as  well  as  Charles  Lever, 
Ainsworth,  and  all  the  others  of  contem- 
porary note,  is  their  extreme  commonness ; 
there  is  nothing  rare  about  them,  for  pro- 
bably fifty  examples  of  every  one  could  be 
purchased  in  London  within  a  day's  walk. 
There  are  a  few  exceptions,  but  these 
exceptions  are  not  of  great  critical  or 
other  value.  They  are  exceedingly  rare, 
and  perhaps  that  is  about  as  much  as  can 
32 


and  their  Prices 

be  urged  in  their  favour.  Nevertheless, 
they  are  absolutely  indispensable  where  a  col- 
lector desires  to  have  a  complete  series  of 
the  works  written  by  the  author  or  authors 
to  whom  he  devotes  his  attention.  Some 
months  ago,  for  example,  a  copy  of  Thacke- 
ray's Flore  et  Zephyr •,  1836,  realised  ^90 
at  public  auction ;  true,  it  was  a  fine  copy, 
but  that  was  the  only  intrinsic  or  other  merit 
which  could  be  claimed.  Another  uncon- 
sidered|  trifle  of  little  literary  importance  of 
Thackeray's  which  fetches  large  sums  when 
it  occurs  in  the  market  is  "The  Second 
Funeral  of  Napoleon,"  1841,  a  trifle  which 
Mr.  Michael  Angelo  Titmarsh,  in  the  quiet 
seclusion  of  the  shades,  would  be  surprised 
to  hear  realises  over  twenty  guineas. 

With  "  Vanity  Fair,"  as  with  some  other 
celebrated  books,  there  are  what  may  be 
described  as  two  first  editions,  but  the  valu- 
able one  is  that  with  the  woodcut  of  the 
Marquis  of  Steyne,  which  was  suppressed 
after  the  issue  of  only  a  few  copies ;  one, 
when  accompanied  by  the  original  wrappers 
and  advertisements,  fetches  about  ^"16,  or 
about  ten  times  as  much  as  an  ordinary  first 
edition,  for  which  amount  a  splendidly  bound 
Edition  de  luxe  copy  of  Thackeray's  works 
in  26  volumes,  with  1500  wood  engravings, 
270  steel  engravings,  and  88  coloured  illustra- 
tions, can  be  obtained  by  those  who  want  it. 
33  c 


Rare  Books 

Naturally,  copies  which  bear  traces  of  having 
belonged  to  their  particular  authors,  or  other 
distinguished  previous  possessors,  do  not 
come  within  the  category  of  ordinary  ex- 
amples. For  example,  a  first  edition  of 
Thackeray's  "Virginians,"  1858-59,  in  the 
original  parts  as  issued,  realises  from  a  guinea 
to  2^2,  according  to  condition  ;  in  April  1891 
an  uncut  copy  in  the  original  boards  sold  at 
Sotheby's  for  ^30,  simply  from  the  fact  that 
it  contained  the  following  "  poetical "  inscrip- 
tion in  the  handwriting  of  the  author  : — 

"  In  the  U.  States  and  in  the  Queen's  dominions 
All  people  have  a  right  to  their  opinions, 
And  many  people  don't  much  relish  '  The  Virginians.' 
Peruse  my  book,  dear  R.,  and  if  you  find  it 
A  little  to  your  taste,  I  hope  you'll  bind  it. 

Peter  Rackham,  Esqre.,  with  best  regards  of  the  author." 

To  the  lasting  joy  of  the  collector,  and  to 
the  extreme  profit  of  the  vendor,  "  dear  R." 
did  not  bind  it. 

Both  Dickens  and  Thackeray  have  suffered 
considerably  at  the  hands  of  the  too  zealous 
persons  who  feed  their  own  vanity  by  hanging 
on  to  the  coat-tails  of  eminent  men  and  claim 
the  title  of  public  benefactors  by  "resurrect- 
ing" from  a  well-merited  obscurity  some 
worthless  tract  or  obsolete  and  ephemeral 
magazine  article,  and  trumpeting  it  about 
as  a  masterpiece.  An  author  is  not  perhaps 
the  best  judge  of  his  own  works.  Milton, 
for  example,  had  a  much  higher  estimation 
34 


and  their  Prices 

of  "  Paradise  Regained  "  than  of  "  Paradise 
Lost,"  an  opinion  which  probably  no  other 
man  has  entertained.  But  an  author's  desire 
that  certain  unimportant  writings  of  his  early 
days  should  be  left  in  the  limbo  of  forgotten 
things  ought  to  be  respected.  The  tendency 
of  the  day  is  not  in  this  pious  direction. 

If  there  is  one  name  in  English  literature 
more  beloved  and  revered  than  another,  it  is 
Charles  Lamb,  and  few  will  be  disposed  to 
quarrel  with  the  collector  for  attempting  to 
obtain  a  series  of  first  editions  of  this  im- 
mortal essayist.  But  Lamb  published  much 
which  he  himself  was  contented  to  let  die  a 
very  natural  early  death,  and  which  scarcely 
possesses  a  single  feature  of  literary  merit.  It 
is  a  curious  freak  of  collectors'  "  cussedness  " 
that  the  least  worthy  memorials  of  the  gentle 
Elia  should  also  possess  the  highest  commer- 
cial value.  It  is  true  that  they  are  for  the 
most  part  excessively  rare,  but  rarity  does 
not  necessarily  carry  with  it  a  corresponding 
intellectual  value.  His  "  Poetry  for  Chil- 
dren," 1 809,  is  a  case  in  point.  It  is  believed 
that  there  are  only  about  a  dozen  copies  of 
this  little  collection  in  existence,  but  that 
number  more  than  satisfies  the  world's  needs: 
two  or  three  years  ago  one  man  in  five  mil- 
lions was  found  willing  to  pay  ^35  for  an 
example.  For  some  time  it  was  thought 
that  this  collection  had  quite  faded  out  of 

35 


Rare  Books 

existence,  but  by  a  succession  of  chances  copy 
after  copy  came  to  light.  The  exhumation 
of  this  kind  of  treasure  trove  always  brings  in 
its  train  a  crowd  of  other  booklets  and  pam- 
phlets, whose  claims  to  a  new  lease  of  life 
are  based  entirely  on  the  bookseller's  not 
disinterested  assumption  that  they  were 
probably  written  by  Lamb  or  some  such 
celebrity.  A  composition  entitled  "  The 
Butterfly's  Ball  and  the  Grasshopper's  Feast" 
has  frequently  been  catalogued  as  by  Lamb, 
and,  of  course,  priced  accordingly,  whilst 
its  illustrations  have  been  boldly  assigned 
to  Blake :  both  statements  being  entirely 
false,  and  without  any  kind  of  justification. 
First  editions  of  Lamb  were  not  popular 
when  those  of  Dickens  and  Thackeray  were 
in  full  demand,  and  the  one  has  gone  up 
pretty  much  in  the  same  ratio  as  the 
others  have  declined.  As  an  example,  Lamb's 
"Tales  from  Shakespeare,"  1807,  with  plates 
by  Blake  and  Mulready,  has  increased  in 
value  from  £10  in  1888  to  ^25  in  1892. 
About  1870  the  price  for  a  fine  copy  was 
73.  6d. 

So  soon  as  the  mania  for  one  particular 
class  of  book  declines,  another  springs  into 
existence ;  for  the  market,  naturally,  must 
not  be  supposed  to  languish.  A  few  years 
ago  Shelley  was  made  the  stalking-horse, 
and  grew  all  the  rage.  Nearly  all  his  pub- 
36 


and  their  Prices 

lications  were  issued  in  extremely  limited 
numbers,  Byron  publishing  perhaps  a  thou- 
sand copies  of  his  works  to  Shelley's  score. 
Shelley's  first  editions  will  always  be  rare, 
although  of  course  their  value  is  governed 
entirely  by  the  demand  for  them.  The  value 
of  Byron's  has  advanced  just  as  that  of  Shelley's 
has  declined.  One  of  Shelley's  publications, 
"Laon  and  Cythna,"  1818,  which  a  few 
years  ago  would  readily  sell  for  about  .£7  or 
;£8,  now  realises  only  about  three  guineas. 
It  makes  all  the  difference,  however,  whether 
the  copy  possesses  the  leaf  containing  a 
Greek  quotation  from  Pindar  or  not ;  of 
this  it  is  believed  there  are  fewer  than  six 
copies  in  existence,  for  one  of  which  £16 
was  paid  in  1888.  In  1889  a  copy  of  the 
first  edition  of  "Alastor,"  1816,  sold  for 
fifteen  guineas,  but  in  November  1893  a 
slightly  inferior  example  (both  were  in  the 
original  boards)  went  for  eight.  A  distinct 
rarity,  such  as  "A  Refutation  of  Deism," 
1814,  of  which  only  about  three  copies  are 
known,  and  of  which  one  example  last  year 
fetched  ^33,  scarcely  comes  within  the  range 
of  comparison.  The  same  may  be  said  of 
several  publications  of  Byron,  such  as,  for 
example,  the  first  edition  of  "  The  Curse  of 
Minerva,"  1812,  and  of  "The  Waltz:  an 
Apostrophic  Hymn"  [by  Horace  Hornem, 
Esq.],  1813,  which,  both  uncut  and  in  origi- 

37 


Rare  Books 

nal  boards,  sold  in  June  1892  for  ^100  and 
.£86  respectively,  we  grieve  to  relate,  receded 
to  ^30  in  1 894.  Byron's  "Poems  on  Various 
Occasions,"  1807,  rose  in  value  from  ^20  in 
1889  to  ;£68  in  1892;  the  latter  amount  is 
more  than  sufficient  to  purchase  a  set  of  the 
first  editions  of  Robert  Browning,  with  the 
exception  of  "Pauline,"  which  is  worth  ^100, 
and  a  few  other  unimportant  trifles. 

Sir  Walter  Scott's  works,  like  most  of 
Byron's,  were  published  in  such  large  numbers 
that  few  are  ever  likely  to  become  rare ;  but 
they  are  rapidly  rising  in  favour,  if  auction 
prices  are  any  criterion.  Six  years  ago  a 
few  pounds  would  have  purchased  a  com- 
plete set  of  Scott's  novels  in  the  pristine 
beauty  of  original  boards  and  uncut  edges. 
Now,  a  first  edition  of  "  Ivanhoe,"  1820, 
fetches  ^7,  a  similar  example  of  "Rob  Roy," 
£6,  each  in  the  three-volume  form.  Even 
within  the  last  few  years  the  collectors  of 
first  editions  of  Scott  have  multiplied  by  an 
hundredfold,  with  the  very  natural  effect  on 
the  market.  Examples  bound  in  half-calf, 
or  indeed  in  any  other  fashion,  except  the 
old  state  in  which  they  were  first  sent  out, 
are  at  a  discount,  and  realise  considerably 
less  than  the  cost  of  their  decadent  dress. 
Even  those  copies  which  are  in  greatly  dilapi- 
dated boards  sell  at  fancy  prices. 

A  few  of  the  earliest  editions  of  Tennyson 
38 


and  their  Prices 

and  Robert  Browning  fetch  high  prices, 
especially  the  celebrated  "  Poems  by  Two 
Brothers."  A  facsimile  reprint  comes  pretty 
much  in  the  same  category  as  an  "  antique  " 
article  manufactured  in  Germany ;  but  such 
a  contingency  in  the  case  of  many  excessively 
rare  and  expensive  books  is  not  without  its 
intellectual  value.  Students  are  not,  as  a 
rule,  men  who  can  compete  with  the  collector, 
and  a  reprint  is  as  useful  for  study  as  the 
original.  It  is  curious  to  note,  in  connec- 
tion with  this  volume,  an  illustration  of  the 
extremes  to  which  collectors  go.  Three 
copies  of  this  little  book  were  in  the  sale- 
room in  1893.  Two  were  ordinarily  good 
copies.  One  being  nicely  bound  in  half-calf, 
realised  £7 ;  but  the  other  being  in  the 
original  boards,  with  a  paper  label  at  the 
back,  as  issued  in  1827,  ran  up  to  ^28! 
A  large-paper  copy  sold  for  £30.  For 
"  Timbuctoo,"  the  poem  which  obtained  the 
Chancellor's  medal  at  Cambridge,  1829,  and 
which  Tennyson  himself  considered  (and 
rightly)  as  unworthy  a  place  among  his  best 
poems,  the  enthusiastic  collector  has  been 
willing  to  pay  ^5.  The  person  who  con- 
fines his  attention  to  first  editions  is,  it  must 
be  admitted,  not  so  extreme  a  case  as  the 
man  who  collects  every  edition  of  certain 
authors.  This  class  of  collectors  are  noble 
patrons  of  the  booksellers.  At  Sotheby's, 
39 


Rare  Books 

in  May  1892  an  almost  complete  collection 
of  the  works  of  Tennyson  and  Tennysoniana, 
comprising  the  first  and  nearly  all  subse- 
quent editions,  for  the  most  part  in  the 
original  covers  and  uncut,  was  on  sale.  The 
lot  comprised  143  volumes,  and  the  total  of 
^83  gave  an  average  of  rather  more  than 
us.  per  volume.  But  if  the  three  or  four 
items  which  usually  realise  fancy  prices  were 
taken  away,  the  average  would  show  an  awful 
loss  on  the  original  outlay,  even  at  discount 
prices.  There  would  be  method  in  this  mad- 
ness if  each  edition  differed  from  one  another ; 
but  they  did  not. 

Browning  societies  have  unquestionably 
fostered  the  demand  for  first  editions  of 
the  poems.  A  complete  set  (with  one 
exception)  of  twenty-nine  volumes  of  first 
editions  of  Browning's  principal  works,  un- 
cut copies  and  in  the  original  bindings, 
realised  in  1892  the  very  respectable  total 
of  ^33,  i  os.  In  the  case  of  a  few  of 
Browning's  publications,  such  as  "Bells  and 
Pomegranates,"  it  makes  all  the  difference 
whether  they  are  or  are  not  bound  in  parts 
as  issued,  the  work  named  costing  about 
five  guineas  when  bound  in  morocco,  but 
when  unbound,  and  in  original  paper  covers, 
its  value  is  just  trebled.  To  the  lay  mind 
a  tastefully  bound  volume  offers  attractions 
not  possessed  by  a  set  of  parts  in  their  dingy 
40 


and  their  Prices 

wrappers,  but  with  a  "  collector  **  it  is  diffe- 
rent. "  Sordello  "  in  a  luxurious  clothing  of 
the  best  morocco  is  much  less  valuable  than 
one  in  the  original  cloth  and  with  a  paper 
label.  A  set  of  the  latest  complete  edition 
of  Browning's  works,  substantially  bound,  in 
all  sixteen  volumes,  costs  less  than  a  single 
copy  of  "  Bells  and  Pomegranates "  in  the 
original  parts. 

The  decline  in  the  call  for  first  editions 
does  not  imply  that  Ruskin  is  less  read  than 
formerly ;  each  new  edition  of  works  of  this 
great  stylist  finds  a  fresh  stratum  of  readers, 
and  the  demand  seems  to  increase  with  the 
supply.  Five  or  six  years  since  a  copy  of 
the  first  edition  of  "  Stones  of  Venice " 
would  not  have  been  reckoned  costly  at  ^"18 
in  the  auction  room.  In  November  1892, 
at  Sotheby's,  a  copy  went  for  ^6,  173.  6d. 
Certainly  the  last  copy  was  a  poor  one,  but  a 
good  example  of  this  issue  is  procurable  at 
about  £10.  "  Modern  Painters  "  has  gone 
down,  even  when  each  of  the  five-volume  set 
of  this  epoch-making  book  is  of  the  first  im- 
pression. In  November  1892,  ten  volumes 
of  his  separate  works  (first  editions),  in  the 
original  cloth,  realised  just  over  three  guineas. 
The  publications  of  Mr.  Ruskin  which  more 
than  maintain  their  commercial  value  are 
those  which  are  quite  unknown  except  to 
the  specialist.  They  are  little  pamphlets 
41 


Rare  Books 

and  tracts,  which  were,  for  the  most  part, 
printed  in  exceedingly  small  numbers,  and 
are  now  practically  unprocurable.  Although 
there  are  about  a  dozen  collectors  who 
have  spared  neither  time  nor  money  to 
render  their  Ruskiniana  complete,  we  believe 
that  not  more  than  one  can  claim  to  have  an 
absolutely  final  series  of  the  works  of  the 
"master."  A  rough  calculation  places  the 
value  of  a  complete  set  of  Ruskin  at  not 
much  short  of  ^300  for  about  sixty  distinct 
publications. 

The  apotheosis  of  a  dead  or  a  truly  great 
living  writer  has  many  points  in  its  favour, 
although,  as  we  have  seen,  it  is  capable  of 
being  carried  to  an  extreme.  But  it  is 
quite  a  different  thing  when  the  "  prospect- 
ing" bookseller  exploits  every  ephemeral 
tract  by  living  authors  who  have  either  not 
the  power  or  the  inclination  to  throttle  this 
kind  of  unholy  trading  on  the  names  of 
reputable  persons.  Both  Mr.  Andrew  Lang 
and  the  late  Richard  Jefferies  (to  bracket 
together  two  names  very  different  in  per- 
manent value)  come  in  this  category.  It  is, 
of  course,  one  of  the  many  severe  penalties 
which  overtake  a  person  who  has  the  mis- 
fortune to  acquire  fame  during  his  lifetime 
— it  is  equally,  of  course,  certain  that  the 
"  celebrated "  author  does  not  participate 
one  jot  in  the  cash  result  of  the  wicked  book- 
42 


and  their  Prices 

seller's  artful  manipulations.  A  local  firm 
of  booksellers  makes  a  parade  of  no  fewer 
than  forty  first  editions  of  Mr.  Lang's 
publications,  which  are  offered  at  a  total 
sum  of  nearly  ^30.  With  one  or  two 
exceptions  these  books  are  still  in  print, 
and  by  those  so  disposed  may  be  had  new 
for  considerably  less  than  half  that  amount. 
Some  of  these  first  editions  are  also  the  last ; 
and  the  idea  of  asking  35.  6d.  for  pamphlets 
which  have  ceased  to  possess  any  kind  of 
interest,  and  which  were  originally  issued 
nominally  at  a  shilling,  is  certainly  not  one 
that  appeals  to  every  book-lover  with  equal 
force.  The  first  edition  of  "  The  Library  " 
is  priced  at  75.  6d.,  or  about  double  its 
original  price,  and  the  publication  of  a  new, 
improved,  and  cheaper  edition  renders  the 
previous  issue  quite  obsolete,  except  with 
collectors,  to  whom  it  is  a  case  of  first 
edition  or  none.  Many  of  Mr.  Lang's 
editions,  particularly  the  unillustrated  vol- 
umes, are  printed  on  "  large  paper " — it  is 
difficult  to  imagine  why.  We  get  "  Lost 
Leaders"  on  large  paper,  and  we  now  ex- 
pect some  enterprising  author  to  issue  a 
volume  of  "  Undiscovered  Paragraphs "  in 
the  same  form.  What,  it  may  be  asked,  is 
the  raison  d'etre  of  a  large-paper  copy  of 
a  book  ?  It  should  be  an  Edition  de  luxe, 
not  only  printed  with  greater  care  on 

43 


Rare  Books 

superior  paper,  but  should  possess  a  fair 
amount  of  extra  illustrations,  and  bound  in 
a  sumptuous  manner.  And  yet  in  how  few 
books  do  we  see  even  the  faintest  attempt  at 
a  fair  quid  pro  quo  for  the  much  enhanced 
price  demanded  for  these  large-paper  copies, 
which,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  are  ugly  in 
shape,  cumbersome  to  handle,  and  show  a 
lamentable  waste  of  good  paper. 

The  catalogue  to  which  reference  was 
just  made  also  contains  a  set  of  the  really 
interesting  labours  of  Richard  JefFeries  : 
twenty-nine  volumes  in  the  original  bindings 
are  modestly  priced  at  ^35,  which  averages 
rather  more  than  ;£i,  43.  per  volume.  In 
this  collection  is  included  "  Jack  Brass, 
Emperor  of  England,"  and  "  Reporting, 
Editing,  and  Authorship."  The  "  Game- 
keeper at  Home  "  is  a  charming  work,  and 
by  far  the  best  of  the  long  list.  It  will 
stand  all  the  tests  of  the  varying  fashions 
of  book-collecting ;  but  the  fact  that  it 
only  realises  about  303.  in  its  original  state 
is  a  proof  that  it  is  not  rare;  and  the 
generally  good  condition  of  the  copies  which 
occur  in  the  market  prove  that  it  has  not 
been  subjected  to  the  hard  reading  which 
literally  wore  out  the  novels  of  Dickens 
and  Scott. 

The  scarcest  of  all  his  books  is  a  little 
brochure  in  paper  covers,  entitled  "Suez- 
44 


and  their  Prices 

cide."  This  tract,  rather  absurd  and  entirely 
worthless,  was  originally  issued  at  threepence. 
It  now  realises  from  two  to  three  guineas,  or 
even  more,  and  is  so  rare  that  only  a  few 
privileged  individuals  have  ever  even  seen  it. 
An  enterprising  person — in  this  instance  a 
"  lady,"  who  wrote  from  a  Continental  address 
— conceived  the  brilliant  idea  of  manufac- 
turing counterfeit  copies.  These  were  offered 
to  confiding  booksellers  at  about  £i  each,  at 
which  price  they  went  off  with  great  rapidity. 
Among  living  authors,  it  may  be  doubted 
if  any  are  destined  to  hold  so  long  and  hon- 
ourable a  place  with  future  generations  as 
George  Meredith  and  Thomas  Hardy.  The 
first  editions  of  both  are  objects  of  the  keen- 
est competition.  Mr.  George  Meredith's 
first  book,  "  Poems,"  was  issued  in  1851,  and 
is  now  worth  from  ten  to  twelve  guineas. 
"  The  Ordeal  of  Richard  Feverel,"  by  many 
regarded — and  rightly  so  to  our  way  of 
thinking — as  one  of  the  greatest  novels 
which  have  appeared  since  the  death  of  Sir 
Walter  Scott,  is  much  sought  after  by  col- 
lectors, and  three  guineas  would  not  be  an 
extravagant  price  to  pay  for  it.  "  Richard 
Feverel "  did  not  by  any  means  take  the 
town  by  storm  when  it  was  first  issued  in 
1859 — indeed,  a  second  edition  was  not  called 
for  until  nineteen  years  after;  and  when 
copies  do  turn  up,  they  are  usually  in  first- 

45 


Rare  Books 

class  condition.  With  Thomas  Hardy's  "  Far 
from  the  Madding  Crowd "  it  was  very 
different,  and  collectors  have  to  content 
themselves  with  exceedingly  shabby  examples 
of  this  truly  great  work,  now  worth  a  £$ 
note.  We  notice  a  paragraph  in  an  American 
paper  to  the  effect  that  a  copy  of  the  first 
edition  of  Mr.  Hardy's  "Tess  of  the  D'Ur- 
bervilles  "  brought  "  ten  times  its  catalogue 
price  at  a  recent  English  sale,"  but  the  state- 
ment is  not  correct :  it  is  certainly  worth 
more  than  the  original  published  price,  which 
is  a  great  achievement  for  a  three- volume 
novel  in  the  course  of  a  year  or  two. 

Another  phase  of  the  passion  for  collecting 
is  suggested  by  the  question  which  was  asked 
in  a  newspaper  some  four  or  more  years  ago 
— "  By  which  of  his  books  will  Professor 
Tyndall  be  best  remembered  hereafter  ? "  If 
the  present  worth  of  them  in  money  be  any 
test,  by  his  "  Alpines."  These  command 
extraordinarily  high  prices — his  "  Hours  of 
Exercise  in  the  Alps  "  often  fetching  as  much 
as  ^2,  ios.,  and  his  "Glaciers  of  the  Alps" 
^3.  Of  the  rarity  of  the  former  book  no 
better  illustration  can  be  given  than  the  fact 
that  until  the  other  day  the  author  himself 
was  not  able  to  procure  a  copy.  "  I  am  told 
by  a  friend,"  he  wrote  to  a  bookseller  who 
makes  a  speciality  of  "  Alpines,"  "  that  you 
have  two  copies  of  my  book.  The  price  is 


and  their  Prices 

high,  and  this  is  in  a  way  very  gratifying 
to  the  author.  And  as,  unfortunately,  I  have 
no  copy  myself,  I  shall  be  glad  if  you  will 
send  the  books  to  me  at  the  price  named." 
A  very  large  number  of  book-collectors  of 
unexceptionable  taste  have  steeled  themselves 
against  the  current  passion  for  the  first  edi- 
tions of  unillustrated  books,  and  have  ex- 
tended their  operations,  so  to  speak,  to  works 
on  which  the  talent  of  the  artist  has  been 
employed.  There  is  much  to  be  said  in 
favour  of  this  side  of  the  subject,  for  the 
chances  are  a  thousand  to  one  in  favour  of 
the  earliest  edition  against  the  second  and  all 
subsequent  ones.  The  impressions  or  illus- 
trations do  not  improve  the  oftener  they  are 
worked  off.  Books  illustrated  by  Walter 
Crane,  Hugh  Thomson,  and  a  few  other  of 
the  most  modern  artists,  show  a  distinct  and 
unmistakable  upward  tendency,  and  those 
who  love  not  merely  first  editions,  but  also 
beautiful  books,  will  be  wise  to  avail  them- 
selves of  opportunities  which  are  not  rare  at 
the  present  moment,  but  which  may  at  any 
time  become  almost  past  praying  for. 

The  "limited  edition"  is  the  most  recent 
development  of  the  first  edition  mania.  One 
of  the  most  notable  examples  in  this  category 
was  Mr.  R.  L.  Stevenson's  onslaught  upon 
the  Nonconformist  minister  who  wrote  hard 
things  of  Father  Damien.  The  attack  ap- 
47 


Rare  Books 

peared  in  The  Scots  Observer,  and  a  privately 
printed  edition  of  fifty  copies  was  struck 
off;  only  nine  were  said  to  be  offered  for  sale 
in  London,  at  three  guineas  each — whether 
they  were  sold  or  not,  the  present  writer  is 
not  in  a  position  to  state.  The  craze  received 
another  impetus  when  the  works  of  Mr. 
Norman  Gale  were  put  into  the  hands  of  the 
horn-blower.  Mr.  Gale's  books  of  rhymes 
began  to  appear  in  1885,  and  at  the  present 
time  a  complete  set  of  the  first  edition  of  his 
booklets,  about  twenty  volumes  on  large  and 
small  paper,  was  first  catalogued  at  ^100 — 
the  published  price  of  many  of  which  did  not 
exceed  35.  6d. — then  it  dropped  to  50  guineas, 
and  it  was  even  rumoured  that  a  set  might 
be  obtained  for  less  than  that.  Finally,  a  set 
which  had  been  catalogued  by  a  well-known 
firm  of  booksellers  at  about  ^90  came  into 
the  market — ostensibly  as  the  property  of  a 
gentleman  who  had  given  up  collecting — and 
this  precious  assortment  of  winged  puerili- 
ties sold  for  2 1  guineas !  And  so  that  little 
bubble  has  burst !  There  are  probably  people 
who  believe  that  Mr.  Gale's  dainty  jingle  is 
going  to  live,  just  as  John  Dennis's  friends 
argued  that  that  renowned  critic  was  a  much 
greater  dramatist  than  Dryden,  and  a  more 
elegant  poet  than  Pope.  But  it  must  be 
patent  to  every  person  of  common  sense  that 
the  mania  for  collecting  this  kind  of  pretty 
48 


and  their  Prices 

vanity  is  not  one  likely  to  last  long.  Some 
sort  of  comparison  might  be  set  up — but 
only  in  regard  to  their  first-edition  affinity — 
between  Mr.  Gale's  publications  and  those  of 
the  late  J.  K.  Stephen ;  but  there  is  a  vitality 
in  J.  K.  S.'s  smart  verse  to  which  Mr.  Gale's 
bundle  of  reeds  cannot  lay  claim.  The  first 
editions  of  the  former  have  a  very  distinct 
literary  as  well  as  commercial  value,  since  in 
the  later  issues  many  of  the  poems  have  been 
considerably  altered  and,  as  some  think,  not 
improved. 

Who,  it  may  be  asked,  buys  the  books  of 
which  only  one  or  two  hundred  copies  are 
struck  off?  As  a  matter  of  fact,  very  many 
of  these  publications  never  get  into  the  hands 
of  the  general  public  at  all.  Before  these 
books  are  published,  they  are,  after  consulta- 
tion held  with  the  worshipful  Guild  of  Log- 
Rollers,  to  which  the  writer  probably  belongs, 
and  a  circular  setting  forth  in  very  indif- 
ferent English,  but  in  not  too  modest  terms, 
the  merits  of  the  enterprise,  subscribed  for 
by  the  booksellers,  who,  learning  that  the 
number  to  be  printed  is  limited,  buy  up  in 
the  anticipation  of  a  rise.  While  the  move- 
ment is  in  its  youth,  its  success  is  not  despi- 
cable; private  persons  are  freely  canvassed, 
and  not  seldom  drawn  into  the  net  (for 
it  is  that — nay,  it  is  usually  a  fraud) ;  even 
the  trade  subscriber,  a  pretty  innocent,  ere 
49  D 


Rare  Books 

now  has  repented  the  act.  A  book  is  not 
going  to  sell  or  survive  simply  because  its 
excuse  for  existence  lies  entirely  in  its  paper, 
illustrations,  binding,  and  printing,  particu- 
larly when  these  items  have  nothing  but  a 
foolish  idiosyncrasy,  or  a  grossness  which  is 
too  feebly  suggested,  to  recommend  them. 
A  book,  even  if  it  consist  of  nothing  but 
blank  leaves,  bound  by  artists  such  as  Eve  or 
Roger  Payne,  has  a  well-defined  claim  upon 
our  consideration,  for,  being  the  work  of  a 
true  artist,  it  cannot  well  fail  to  be  artistic. 
But  it  seems  to  exact  from  us  more  than  is 
strictly  fair  when  we  have  indulgently  passed 
the  covers  as  quaint,  and  the  interior  of  a 
volume  turns  out  to  be  the  theatre  of  a 
contest  between  the  author  and  the  artist  for 
superiority  in  silly  indecency  or  preposterous 
abortion. 


'Pictures 


Pictures 

IF  book-collecting  is  susceptible  of  being 
classed  among  forms  of  speculation,  how 
much  more  so  is  the  business  of  acquiring  a 
gallery  of  paintings  !  It  is  positive  gambling. 
The  old  school  of  buyer  has  pretty  well  died 
out,  and  the  new  one  presents  to  our  view, 
instead  of  men  of  family  and  fortune  pur- 
chasing pictures  on  their  own  judgment, 
or  that  of  sound  critics  or  private  friends, 
commercial  men  purchasing  them  from  com- 
mercial men,  sections  of  whom  form  a  strange 
union  of  dealer,  auctioneer,  commission-agent, 
and  adviser  (in  the  strictest  confidence).  A 
Johannes  Factotum ;  a  new  Proteus ;  a 
modern  mercantile  quadrilateral !  "  When 
broker  meets  broker ;  then  comes  the  tug  of 
war."  This  is  an  unquestionable  fact,  and  it 
is  a  very  important  one,  because  it  provides 
a  key  to  the  capricious  and  violent  fluctua- 
tions which  this  description  of  property 
undergoes  from  season  to  season.  This  very 
remarkable  change  has  been  effected  within 
the  last  half  century. 

53 


Pictures 

The  majority  of  private  picture-collec- 
tors of  the  present  day  have  gained  money 
by  industries  with  which  they  are  familiar, 
and  generously  place  a  proportion  of  their 
earnings  at  the  disposal  of  an  expert,  who, 
as  we  have  already  suggested,  may  bear 
towards  the  articles  sold  to  his  patron  more 
than  one  sort  of  relationship,  for  investment 
in  commodities  of  which  they  know  next  to 
nothing.  Whatever  changes  occur  in  quota- 
tions, the  auctioneer  et  ccetera  stands  to  win 
— more  or  less ;  and  he  turns  over  on  the 
same  object  half-a-dozen  times  very  possibly 
during  his  distinguished  career.  The  finest 
judges  of  paintings  —  such  men  as  Ottley, 
Waagen,  Hazlitt,  Robinson — have  not  usually 
been  buyers — not,  at  all  events,  on  their 
own  account.  It  is  the  middleman  here, 
as  elsewhere,  who  pulls  the  strings,  and 
the  same  individual  is  ever  playing  many 
parts.  It  is  a  curious  game,  this  merchandise 
in  the  higher  efforts  of  genius,  and  a  lucra- 
tive. The  old  or  modern  master  has  become, 
under  latter-day  auspices,  as  reliable  an  asset 
as  the  upshot  of  a  pair  of  dice  or  a  teetotum. 
The  small  dealer  is  a  poor  creature  by  com- 
parison; he  gets  his  material  goodness  knows 
where,  and  sells  it  he  only  knows  to  whom ; 
but  there  is  so  little  money  in  it,  after  all ! 
You  must  have  a  big  name  to  conjure  with  if 
you  desire  big  prices,  and  that  is  not  so  readily 
54 


Pictures 

accomplished.  Some  of  us,  who  are  mere  by- 
standers, think  that  we  sometimes  see  such 
a  thing  as  a  proneness  on  the  part  of  gentle- 
men to  watch  less  jealously  than  was  their 
wont  their  good  repute.  Well,  it  is  alto- 
gether easier  to  run  down-hill  than  to  climb 
up.  Facilis  descensus^  &c.  These  humble 
reflections  appeared  to  arise  naturally  in  our 
mind  when  we  sought  a  clue  to  the  at  first 
sight  startling  vicissitudes  attendant  on  the 
sale  of  pictures  under  the  hammer. 

Mr.  George  Redford,  the  venerable  com- 
piler of  "  Art  Sales,"  regards  the  great  Art 
Treasures  Exhibition  at  Manchester  in  1857 
as  having  set  the  fashion  in  this  respect,  for 
he  points  out  that,  since  that  event,  "there 
is  scarcely  a  commercial  man  of  position  in 
Lancashire,  Yorkshire,  Derbyshire,  and  in 
Scotland,  who  has  not  his  collection  of  pic- 
tures," whilst  every  town  or  provincial  city 
has  its  picture-gallery  and  museum.  Indeed, 
throughout  Britain  the  ruling  passion  with 
the  great  majority  of  wealthy  men  has  been 
directed  in  the  way  of  art. 

It  is  a  notorious  fact  that  pictures  which  a 
few  years  ago  could  scarcely  be  given  away 
command  to-day  very  high  figures.  It  is 
difficult  to  convince  ourselves  that  the  pic- 
tures have  not  altered,  and  that  the  only 
change  which  time  has  effected  is  in  ourselves. 
A  beautiful  picture  is,  all  things  being  equal, 

55 


Pictures 

always  a  beautiful  picture.  But  the  unfor- 
tunate part  of  the  matter  is  that  for  one  who 
looks  at  a  work  of  art  for  its  own  sake  with 
a  share  of  critical  insight,  there  are  ten  who 
do  so  because  they  are  advised  that  it  is  the 
right  thing,  and  will  roll  up  money  against 
re-sale,  which  sometimes  it  does,  and  some- 
times does  not.  It  depends  a  good  deal,  this 
does,  on  the  pleasure  and  convenience  of  the 
log-rollers  and  teetotum-spinners. 

However  careful  and  exhaustive  an  inquiry 
may  be  made  into  the  picture-sales  and  pic- 
ture-fashions of  the  past  and  present,  these 
sales  and  fashions  afford  a  very  uncertain 
indication  of  what  may  be  the  favourite 
pictures  of  the  next  generation.  Taste 
varies  in  a  more  or  less  accentuated  degree ; 
and  however  much  one  may  feel  disposed 
to  quarrel  with  some  of  the  extremes  into 
which  we  are  led  by  those  who  are  behind 
the  scenes,  there  is  no  denying  the  perpetual 
fluctuation.  Picture-collecting  resolves  itself 
not  so  much  into  a  question  of  to  buy  or  not 
to  buy,  as  in  the  character  of  the  collector's 
judgment  and  the  depth  of  his  pocket. 

The  commercial  prosperity  of  a  civilised 
nation  may,  to  no  small  extent,  be  gauged 
by  the  extent  to  which  the  purchase  of  what 
may  be  generically  classed  as  objects  of  art 
is  carried.  It  is  impossible  to  make  even  a 
rough  estimate  of  what  has  been  paid  during, 

56 


Pictures 

say,  the  past  two  years  for  articles  which  are 
luxuries,  and  not  in  any  sense  necessaries; 
but  if  any  such  rough  calculation  could  be 
drawn  up,  the  total  would  be  doubtless 
enormous.  Considering  that  the  "  turnover" 
of  the  most  eminent  firm  of  art-auctioneers 
in  London,  and  perhaps  in  the  world,  some- 
times averages  nearly  three-quarters  of  a 
million  sterling  annually,  and  that  two  days' 
sale  alone  shewed  a  total  of  over  .£100,000, 
the  country  might  be  taken  to  be  in  a  less 
straitened  condition  than  the  pessimist  would 
have  us  believe.  But  it  is  almost  too  trite  a 
fact  to  be  worth  repeating  that  the  whole 
of  the  competition  in  King  Street  for  the 
higher  classes  of  property  is  almost  indepen- 
dent of  the  state  of  trade,  and  lies  between 
half-a-dozen  individuals  or  institutions,  whose 
withdrawal  or  absence  would  reduce  the 
figures  at  once  to  a  more  normal  and  more 
trustworthy  standard. 

The  collection  of  pictures  of  the  late 
David  Price  cost  its  owner  about  .£90,000, 
and  when  sold  at  Christie's  in  April  1892 
realised  rather  more  than  .£70,000.  Super- 
ficially, the  two  totals  would  indicate  a  net 
loss  of  .£20,000,  for,  whilst  some  of  the 
pictures  realised  considerably  less  than  Mr. 
Price  paid  for  them  originally,  others  fetched 
more.  But  it  must  be  remembered  as  a  set- 
off"  that  Mr.  Price  (who  was  a  bachelor)  was 

'  57 


Pictures 

a  collector  for  nearly  forty  years,  and  that, 
apart  from  his  business  in  the  City,  he  had 
no  interest  in  the  affairs  of  every-day  life, 
except  so  far  as  they  related  to  pictures  and 
picture-buying.  There  are,  of  course,  many 
people  who  would  regard  ^500  a  year  as  a 
rather  heavy  sum  to  spend  on  a  hobby ;  but 
when  we  look  at  the  many  hobbies  on  which 
vastly  larger  sums  are  annually  laid  out,  with 
very  little  benefit,  abstract  or  otherwise,  to 
the  spender,  we  cannot  help  regarding  the 
amount  which  Mr.  Price  paid  for  his  plea- 
sure as  money  very  well  spent.  Consider- 
ing the  gratification  with  which  Mr.  Price 
would  shew  his  picture-gallery,  and  looking 
at  the  results  of  a  happy  life  and  a  fine 
discriminating  taste,  the  transaction  is  pre- 
eminently a  satisfactory  one.  How  many 
similar  speculators  in  stocks  and  shares,  in 
horse-racing,  or  any  other  hobby,  could  shew 
a  better  result  after  nearly  forty  years'  con- 
tinuance? The  tendency  of  the  day  is  to 
omit  a  fair  consideration  of  intellectual  profit, 
which  surely  ought  to  count  for  something 
when  the  balance  has  to  be  struck. 

One  reads  a  good  deal  of  lucky  purchasers 
in  the  way  of  pictures.  It  is  said,  for 
example,  that  a  season  or  two  ago  a  dirty 
picture  described  as  an  "old  master"  was 
sold  at  Christie's  for  seven  guineas,  which, 
of  itself,  is  most  probable.  But  this  picture 

58 


Pictures 

is  further  said  to  have  been  re-sold  for  ;£8o, 
again  for  ^"700,  and,  after  being  cleaned,  it 
was  discovered  to  be  a  fine  Terberg,  and  was 
ultimately  purchased  for  a  Continental  gallery 
for  ^"2000.  It  is  also  said,  and  this  time  we 
believe  on  very  good  grounds,  that  a  picture 
which  went  a-begging  in  the  West  of  Eng- 
land for  five  shillings  on  more  than  one 
occasion,  was  discovered  to  be  a  genuine 
Guido,  and  worth  at  least  ^"2000.  For  all 
such  anecdotes  there  is  perhaps  some  sort 
of  foundation,  but  they  can  only  be  accepted 
with  extreme  caution.  Christie's,  of  all 
places  in  the  world,  is  the  least  likely  spot 
at  which  a  "  fine  Terberg "  would  be  sold 
as  an  "  old  master "  for  seven  guineas, 
although  it  is  certain  that  Terbergs  so 
called  have  been  sold  there  for  much  lower 
amounts.  Mr.  Woods,  the  senior  partner 
in  the  historic  firm  just  mentioned,  has  per- 
haps a  wider  and  more  accurate  knowledge 
of  pictures  than  any  living  person,  and  his 
judgment  is  rarely  known  to  err. 

The  pedigree  of  a  picture  is  its  most 
valuable  extraneous  or  collateral  recommen- 
dation. It  governs  its  price  when  it  comes 
up  for  sale  under  the  hammer.  There  are 
so  many  forgeries,  of  all  degrees  of  merit  or 
want  of  it,  and  so  many  copies  which  possess 
the  extremely  inconvenient  property  of  closely 
resembling  the  original.  Where  a  picture 
59 


Pictures 

can  be  traced  without  a  break  from  the 
artist's  easel  down  to  the  present  day,  there 
is  of  course  no  call  for  a  doubt  as  to  its 
genuineness.  Unfortunately,  this  cannot 
always  be  done,  particularly  in  the  case  of 
a  prolific  artist,  more  especially  if  he  was 
obscure  and  unappreciated  in  his  lifetime. 
This  was  the  case  with  many  men  whose 
pictures  now  individually  realise  sums  which 
to  them  would  have  been  a  fortune. 

The  Dutch  school  affords  the  widest  pos- 
sible scope  for  comparisons  in  the  matter 
of  past  and  present  prices.  Down  to  the 
first  quarter  of  the  present  century,  the 
finest  works  might  be  had  in  this  country  at 
sums  which  now  appear  absurd.  Within  the 
past  half  a  century  the  values  of  these  old 
Dutch  masters  have  gone  up  with  a  bound, 
for  we  have  at  last  come  to  regard  abso- 
lute fidelity  to  nature  as  distinct  qualities  in 
the  tout  ensemble  of  a  picture.  To  take,  as  a 
collective  illustration,  the  famous  collection  of 
the  late  Adrian  Hope,  sold  on  June  30,  1 894. 
It  may  be  doubted  whether  these  seventy- 
five  pictures  cost  anything  like  ,£10,000. 
Mr.  Hope  ceased  to  collect  between  thirty 
and  forty  years  ago,  after  having  obtained 
all  he  wanted,  at  prices  which  seem  absurdly 
small  when  compared  with  those  of  to-day, 
the  total  of  the  sale,  in  fact,  being  close  on 
.£50,000.  It  was  expected  that  the  amount 
60 


Pictures 

would  have  been  nearer  ,£100,000,  but  many 
of  the  pictures  had  the  appearance  of  having 
been  "  touched  up."  All  things  considered, 
the  collection  sold  extremely  well. 

To  particularise  a  few  of  the  more  striking 
examples  sold  during  the  last  few  seasons, 
the  splendid  work  of  Jan  Both,  "Abraham 
with  Hagar  and  Ishmael,"  in  which  the  sun- 
shine is  manipulated  in  a  manner  at  once 
extraordinary  and  unique,  sold  in  1828  for 
rather  less  than  300  guineas,  ran  up  in  1875 
to  4500  guineas,  and  unaccountably  fell  to 
the  less  artificial  price  of  1090  guineas 
when  sold  with  the  Mildmay  collection  in 
June  1893,  a  fall  almost  without  a  recent 
parallel  so  far  as  regards  Dutch  pictures. 
So,  too,  Both's  hilly  and  well-wooded  land- 
scape, which  realised  ^"1752,  IDS.  at  the 
Bredel  sale  in  1875,  declined  to  750  guineas 
in  the  Dennistoun  sale  in  June  1894. 
Genuine  examples  of  this  master  are  rare; 
excellent  copies  by  contemporary  hands  occur 
pretty  frequently,  and  their  market  value  is 
usually  something  like  ^5  each.  Slightly 
different,  however,  is  the  case  of  Both's 
Italian  landscape  known  as  "The  Muleteer," 
which  in  1846  went  for  320  guineas,  and  in 
the  Mildmay  sale  for  370  guineas.  A  really 
perfect  Cuyp,  a  landscape  in  which  his  mar- 
vellous treatment  of  atmospheric  effect  is 
seen  at  its  best,  is  a  great  rarity  in  the 
61 


Pictures 

market,  and  when  it  does  occur,  ^2000  is 
not  considered  an  extravagant  figure.  The 
Dudley  collection  in  1892  contained  one  such, 
which  was  knocked  down  for  1800  guineas. 
Another  example  occurred  in  the  Hope  sale 
in  1860;  this  splendid  work  was  sold  for 
55°  guineas;  it  has  now  advanced  to  2000 
guineas.  But  one  may  obtain  Cuyps,  so 
called,  sometimes  at  prices  ranging  from 
20  to  200  guineas,  signed  and  dated,  but 
whether  they  are  always  genuine  is  another 
matter.  The  latter  sum  was  paid  in  June 
1892  for  a  sunny  river  scene  which  was  at 
one  time  in  the  collection  of  the  late  Earl 
of  Bessborough.  What  has  been  so  aptly 
described  as  the  "  mellow  clearness "  of 
Nicholas  Berghem  does  not  seem  an  attrac- 
tive attribute  to  picture  -  buyers ;  for  the 
works  of  this  artist  scarcely  ever  approach 
four  figures,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  ex- 
hibit a  slight  downward  tendency.  The 
faultless  little  example  entitled  "  Cattle  Pass- 
ing a  Ford,"  which  realised  at  the  dispersal 
of  the  Clewer  Manor  collection  in  1876 
^1207,  i os.,  dropped  to  ^682,  los.  when 
it  was  again  sold  with  the  late  Mr.  Barclay 
Field's  pictures  in  May  1893.  Another 
first-class  example  of  this  artist,  "  Milking 
the  Goats,"  sold  in  1861  for  300  guineas, 
but  with  the  Field  collection  it  went  for 
240  guineas.  In  February  1893  an  Italian 
62 


Pictures 

river  scene  realised  52  guineas,  but  a  portrait 
of  a  man  in  a  black  dress  and  lace  collar  got 
no  farther  than  four  guineas.  But  Berghem 
had  many  scholars  and  not  a  few  imitators ; 
and  although  a  prolific  workman — for  his 
wife  kept  him  to  the  mark,  it  is  said — many 
paintings  are  sold  as  his  in  which  he  could 
not  possibly  have  had  a  hand.  The  pictures 
of  one  of  Berghem's  pupils,  Pieter  de  Hooch 
(whose  interiors  are  unrivalled  in  the  magi- 
cal manner  in  which  the  light  is  suffused 
throughout  the  several  apartments),  fetch 
very  high  prices,  but  this  was  not  always  the 
case.  Of  the  two  examples  in  the  Mild- 
may  collection,  one,  which  recently  fetched 
2800  guineas,  was  sold  in  1800  for  ^37, 
and  the  other,  for  which  700  guineas  were 
paid,  even  in  1841,  only  realised  ^190.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Interior  by  this  artist  in 
the  Hope  collection  sold  for  2150  guineas, 
its  price  in  1861  being  ^441.  As  in  the 
case  of  Berghem,  and  nearly  every  other 
artist  of  eminence,  so  with  Memlinc;  for 
every  single  work  of  the  master  there  are  at 
least  a  dozen  pictures  catalogued  as  his,  but 
which  bear  a  very  faint,  far-off  resemblance 
to  the  real  thing.  Really  genuine  examples 
of  this  early  Flemish  painter — usually  the 
Madonna  and  Child — fetch  good  prices. 
The  beautiful  picture,  in  perfect  preserva- 
tion, sold  in  June  1893  in  Lord  Revelstoke's 

63 


Pictures 

collection  for  uoo  guineas,  a  considerable 
advance  on  the  sum  paid  for  it  five  years 
ago,  namely,  750  guineas.  Another  picture 
of  the  same  character,  "Madonna  and  Child," 
has  recently  been  sold  for  885  guineas. 

Hobbema's  pictures  may  be  taken  as  re- 
presenting the  maximum  recently  paid  for 
the  Dutch  masters.  The  most  important 
example  of  this  artist  which  has  ever  come 
into  the  saleroom  is  "  A  View  in  Holland," 
sold  with  Lord  Dudley's  pictures  in  June 
1892,  when  it  realised  9600  guineas.  Dr. 
Waagen  has  described  this  without  exaggera- 
tion as  "  a  picture  which  is  equal  to  a  whole 
gallery ; "  and  further,  "  for  striking  truth  of 
nature,  delicacy  of  aerial  perspective,  effect 
of  bright  afternoon  sun,  and  masterly  light- 
ness of  execution,  there  are  probably  very 
few  pictures  in  the  world  which  bear  a  com- 
parison to  this."  This  picture  was  at  one 
time  in  the  collection  of  the  Right  Hon. 
Edward  John  Littleton,  for  whose  ancestor 
it  is  said  to  have  been  expressly  painted. 
It  would  be  exceedingly  interesting  to  know 
how  much  was  originally  paid  for  it.  It 
was  privately  purchased  from  the  first  Lord 
Hatherton  by  the  Earl  of  Dudley  for  3000 
guineas.  Close  to  this  comes  the  landscape 
with  watermill  which  sold  in  the  Secr6tan 
collection  in  1889  for  5200  guineas.  In 
1802  this  picture  was  knocked  down  for  280 
64 


Pictures 

guineas,  and  in  1880  for  ^8800.  Each  of 
these  splendid  pictures  has  the  advantage 
of  having  the  figures  painted  by  Adrian  van 
de  Velde.  In  the  Dudley  collection  there 
were  two  others  by  Hobbema,  one  of  which, 
a  richly-wooded  river  scene,  sold  for  1900 
guineas,  a  slight  depreciation  in  its  value 
since  1878,  when  it  fetched  .£2205;  the 
second,  a  landscape,  half  as  large  again  as 
the  last  mentioned,  realised  2300  guineas. 
A  woody  landscape  in  the  Field  collection 
sold  in  June  1893  for  4500  guineas.  The 
well-known  "  View  of  a  Lock,"  with  the 
Herring  Packer's  Tower,  is  another  illustra- 
tion of  the  extreme  difference  between  past 
and  present  prices.  In  the  Van  Alphen  sale, 
1810,  it  sold  for  ^90;  in  1831  it  had 
advanced  to  ^213,  and  two  years  later  it 
reached  400  guineas,  and  in  June  1893  it  was 
knocked  down  for  2200  guineas,  and  even  at 
that  high  figure  it  is  exceedingly  cheap. 

The  works  of  the  two  Ostades  sold  during 
the  past  few  years  differ  very  much  both  in 
quality  and  price.  From  10  to  2500  guineas 
seems  a  fairly  long  sliding-scale,  and  yet 
works  by  (or  attributed  to)  Adrian  van 
Ostade  have  been  dispersed  at  both  figures. 
The  most  notable  of  a  long  list  is  the  "  In- 
terior of  a  Kitchen,"  with  four  peasants  and 
a  dog  seated  by  a  fire,  a  little  canvas,  mea- 
suring only  14  inches  by  13  inches,  which 
65  '  E 


Pictures 

realised  ^4100  in  the  Schneider  collection, 
1 86 1,  and  was  sold  with  the  Dudley  pictures 
for  ^2625.  The  Hamilton  Palace  example 
of  the  same  artist's  "  Interior  of  a  Cabaret," 
sold  in  1882  for  ^"1827,  ios.,  dropped  to 
^776,  ios.  in  1893.  An  historically  in- 
teresting example  of  this  master's  works, 
which  occurred  in  the  sale-room  in  May 
1893,  still  further  illustrates  the  drop  in 
the  commercial  value  of  Ostade's  works. 
"  The  Hurdy-gurdy  Player,"  which  is  signed, 
but  which  does  not  appear  in  Smith's  Cata- 
logue, was  purchased  in  Paris  by  the  ex- 
Empress  Eugenie  for  about  ^1300,  and  by 
her  it  was  presented  to  her  landlord  at 
Chislehurst,  and  is  now  appraised  at  550 
guineas.  An  "Interior,"  which  in  1885 
was  sold  for  900  guineas,  fell  during  the 
past  season  to  730  guineas;  whilst  "Boors 
Playing  at  Tric-Trac"  sold  in  May  1893 
for  650  guineas.  Of  the  very  few  perfect 
examples  of  the  less  generally  known  Isaac 
Ostade,  "The  Cabaret,"  signed  and  dated 
1646,  may  be  mentioned  as  having  realised 
at  the  San  Donate  Palace  sale,  1880,  ^2000 ; 
in  the  Secre"tan  sale,  1889,  ^1575;  and  with 
the  Mildmay  pictures,  in  June  last,  .£1572. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  woody  landscape  by 
this  artist,  selling  in  1846  for  79  guineas, 
had  advanced  by  June  1893  to  380  guineas. 
Genuine  Rembrandts  fetch  very  high  prices; 
66 


Pictures 

though  any  person  may  cover  the  walls  of  his 
house  with  by  no  means  objectionable  pic- 
tures, which  certain  dealers  who  sell  them  will 
assert  to  be  Rembrandts,  at  something  like 
an  average  of  £i  per  square  yard;  and  if 
one's  friends  were  always  so  easily  persuaded 
as  oneself  in  these  matters,  no  doubt  Rem- 
brandt-walls would  be  largely  on  the  increase, 
for  the  supply  is  never  likely  to  fall  short  of 
the  demand. 

The  most  remarkable  examples  of  this 
master  which  have  come  under  the  hammer 
within  recent  years  were  among  the  pictures 
which  formed  the  collection  of  the  late  Lord 
Dover  at  Whitehall,  and  sold  with  Viscount 
Clifden's  property  in  May  1893.  These  were 
portraits  of  the  Burgomaster  Six  and  his  wife, 
for  many  years  in  the  possession  of  a  descen- 
dant (who  settled  in  the  north  of  Holland) 
of  this  couple;  the  pair  realised  together 
12,200  guineas,  and  they  unquestionably  take 
very  high  rank  in  the  series  of  matchless 
portraits  which  this  artist  painted.  Realistic 
in  every  sense  also  is  the  portrait  of  Hendrikje 
Stoffels  rising  up  in  bed,  and  in  the  act  of 
putting  back  the  curtains  with  her  hands, 
and  looking  with  fixed  attention  at  some 
object  in  the  room.  This  picture,  which  is 
fairly  well  known  through  Cooper's  mezzo- 
tint engraving,  is  absolutely  perfect  in  its 
illusionary  effect  on  the  spectator.  It  sold 
67 


Pictures 

for  5000  guineas  in  the  Wertheimer  sale  in 
1892.  In  neither  of  the  foregoing  instances 
have  we  any  means  of  indicating  the  prices 
at  which  they  previously  changed  hands. 
The  Dudley  picture  of  "  St.  John  Preaching 
in  the  Wilderness  "  shows  a  slight  deprecia- 
tion in  value,  for  in  1 845  it  realised  ^3000 ; 
in  1892  it  sold  for  ^2625.  The  brilliant 
portrait  of  "  A  Young  Lady  "  shows  a  reverse 
state  of  things,  for  a  few  years  ago  it  sold 
for  ,£1690,  and  in  June  1893,  with  the 
Mildmay  pictures,  for  ^2667.  So,  too, 
the  portrait  of  Nicholas  Ruts,  which  sold 
in  the  collection  of  King  William  II.  of 
Holland  for  ^283,  realised  in  the  Hope 
sale  in  June  1894  the  high  figure  of  4700 
guineas. 

The  pictures  by  Ruysdael,  which  were  at 
their  lowest  ebb  at  the  beginning,  and  at 
their  highest  during  the  "  fifties  "  of  the  pre- 
sent century,  have  now  reached  a  middle  line. 
One  of  the  most  attractive  examples  of  this 
artist,  as  well  as  of  a  size  which  one  rarely 
meets  with  at  an  auction  nowadays,  "  A  View 
on  the  Shores  of  Scheveningen,"  sold  at  the 
dispersion  of  the  Choiseul  gallery  in  1772 
for  ;£68.  It  passed  into  the  possession  of 
Prince  de  Conti,  with  whose  pictures  it  was 
sold  in  1779  f°r  ^£96,  which  price  included 
the  equally  superb  companion  picture.  The 
pair  were  subsequently  the  property  of  the 
68 


Pictures 

Marquis  de  Marigny  and  of  the  Baron  Ver- 
stolk  von  Soelen,  and  at  the  Mildmay  sale 
in  June  1893  the  two  fetched  4600  guineas. 
The  equally  famous  and  absolutely  perfect  pic- 
ture known  as  "  The  Ruin,"  which  has  during 
the  past  century  and  a  quarter  formed  one  of 
the  chief  glories  of  at  least  half  a  dozen  re- 
nowned collections,  came  under  the  hammer 
in  1875,  but  was  appraised  at  only  1400 
guineas  in  the  Dudley  sale.  The  very  fine 
"Waterfall,"  which  in  1851  was  appraised 
at  355  guineas,  realised  1600  guineas  in  the 
Hope  sale ;  when,  also,  a  small  picture  of  an 
old  fort — which  sold  in  1857  for  126  guineas 
— was  knocked  down  at  the  enhanced  figure 
of  610  guineas.  Those  who  cannot  afford 
these  large  amounts  may  be  comforted  to 
learn  that  every  season  Ruysdaels  are  to  be 
had  from  10  to  40  guineas,  many  of  them 
signed.  Examples  about  the  authenticity  of 
which  there  is  no  doubt  may  be  had  for  210 
guineas,  at  which  figure  the  charming  little 
landscape  exhibited  at  Burlington  House  in 
1892  was  sold  with  the  Lawrence  pictures  in 
May  of  that  year ;  whilst  the  admirable  view 
of  a  river  and  a  cascade  in  the  Marquis  of 
Exeter's  collection  realised  ^250  in  1888. 
A  river  scene,  a  perfect  example  of  Solomon 
Ruysdael's  work,  may  be  here  mentioned  as 
having  doubled  in  value  in  about  a  quarter 
of  a  century:  in  1876  it  sold  at  Mr.  Albert 
69 


Pictures 

Levy's  collection  for  400  guineas,  in  June 
1893  it  realised  870  guineas. 

For  some  reason  or  other,  into  which  it 
will  not  be  necessary  to  enter  here,  Rubens 
does  not  seem  to  be  a  favourite  with  copyists, 
and  first-class  examples  of  his  work  do  not 
occur  at  all  frequently  in  the  market.  The 
only  two  recent  exceptions  of  importance 
were  portraits  of  his  first  and  second  wives. 
The  former,  Elizabeth  Brandt,  realised  at 
the  Hamilton  Palace  sale  in  1882,  1750 
guineas,  but  it  has  now  dropped  to  650 
guineas,  a  fate  which,  curiously  enough,  has 
attended  nearly  every  picture  from  that 
famous  collection  which  has  since  recurred 
for  sale.  The  second  portrait  realised  60 
guineas  at  the  Wynn-Ellis  collection,  and 
then  dropped  to  twenty.  The  most  carefully 
painted  and  in  many  respects  the  finest  Rubens 
which  has  been  sold  under  the  hammer  for 
some  years  is  the  picture  of  "  Juno  Trans- 
ferring the  Eyes  of  Argus  to  the  Tail  of  the 
Peacock."  It  measures  9  feet  by  12  feet, 
and  was  formerly  in  the  Durazzo  Palace  at 
Genoa;  it  went  in  1893  for  1500  guineas, 
and  would  not  have  been  dear  at  ten  times 
that  amount.  The  brilliant  picture  of  a  wild 
boar  hunt  may  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  finest 
examples  of  Rubens  sold  during  the  past  two 
seasons:  it  realised  ,£1666  at  the  King 
of  Holland's  sale  in  1850:  at  the  Adrian 
70 


Pictures 

Hope  sale  it  slightly  advanced  to  1660 
guineas. 

The  name  of  Teniers  finds  itself  attached 
to  an  extraordinary  assortment  of  pictures, 
good,  bad,  and  indifferent.  In  1892  three 
large  canvases  realised  the  magnificent  total 
of  just  over  30  guineas.  An  "  Interior," 
with  three  Boors  seated  round  a  table  in 
front  of  a  fire,  with  one  of  them  in  the  act 
of  lighting  his  pipe,  exhibited  at  Burlington 
House  in  1892,  sold  in  May  of  that  year 
for  23  guineas.  The  set  of  five  copies  by 
Teniers  from  Bellini,  Paolo  Veronese,  Palma 
Giovanni,  Guido  Reni,  and  Titian,  at  one 
time  in  the  Blenheim  Palace  collection,  real- 
ised ^30,  193.  6d.  in  January  last.  "  Signed  " 
pictures  of  this  master  are  common  enough 
at  five  guineas  each.  The  two  really  first- 
class  examples  which  occurred  in  the  Dudley 
sale  do  not,  however,  come  in  this  category. 
"  Christ  Crowned  with  Thorns,"  described 
as  "  a  rich  composition  of  great  power  of 
colouring,"  was  knocked  down  for  700 
guineas :  forty-eight  years  ago  it  realised 
1000  guineas.  The  second  example,  the 
courtyard  of  a  cottage,  a  small  picture, 
fourteen  inches  by  twenty-one  inches,  was 
sold  for  470  guineas. 

As  illustrating  the  extreme  sums  paid  for 
similar  pictures  by  one  artist,  it  may  be 
mentioned  that  the  Duke  of  Hamilton's 
71 


Pictures 

example  of  J.  van  Huysman's  vase  of  flowers 
sold  for  .£1228,  whereas  numerous  other 
examples,  some  of  them  signed,  have  changed 
hands  at  37  guineas,  and  even  less.  A  charm- 
ing picture  of  a  group  of  roses,  peonies,  and 
pinks  in  a  terra-cotta  jar  on  a  marble  slab 
realised  175  guineas  in  the  Bagot  sale,  1836  ; 
500  guineas  at  the  Earl  of  Clare's  sale,  1864, 
and  460  guineas  at  the  Barclay  Field  sale  in 

1893- 

The  pictures  of  the  Van  de  Veldes,  Adrian 

and  William,  and  of  Jan  Wynants  indicate 
very  little  disposition  to  run  to  either  of  the 
two  extremes ;  and  in  proof  of  this  two 
instances  may  be  quoted  from  the  Mildmay 
sale.  A.  Van  de  Velde's  pastoral  scene  known 
as  "The  Bagpiper"  sold  in  1829  for  300 
guineas ;  it  is  now  appraised  at  500  guineas. 
J.  Wynant's  "  Highwaymen  attacking  Tra- 
vellers "  (with  the  figures  by  Wouverman) 
realised  185  guineas  in  1835  an<^  410  guineas 
in  1893.  Both  were  at  one  time  in  the 
possession  of  Baron  Verstolk  van  Soelen, 
and  each  is  described  in  Smith's  Catalogue 
Raisonnt.  Good  examples  of  each  artist 
always  fetch  fair  prices,  from  200  to  400 
guineas.  Of  Wouverman's  works,  first-class 
examples  almost  invariably  run  well  into  four 
figures.  The  clever  picture  depicting  the 
halt  of  a  shooting  party  was  knocked  down 
at  the  Dudley  sale  for  3500  guineas.  The 
72 


Pictures 

numerous  examples  of  this  artist  which  have 
recently  occurred  for  sale  indicate  a  steady 
rise,  in  several  instances  doubling  in  value  in 
a  few  years.  One  of  the  most  remarkable 
illustrations  of  the  increased  popularity  of 
pictures  by  old  Dutch  masters  occurred  at  the 
Hope  sale,  Gerard  Dow's  famous  little  panel 
"The  Flute-Player"  realising  3500  guineas 
— less  than  half  a  century  ago  it  was  knocked 
down  for  ^320. 

The  collection  of  the  late  Right  Hon. 
George,  last  Earl  of  Egremont,  sold  in 
November  1892,  may  be  quoted  as  a  fair 
sample  of  the  treasures  sometimes  described 
as  "  old  masters."  With  ^100  in  his 
pocket,  the  not  too  particular  aspirant  to 
the  possession  of  an  art  gallery  might  on 
the  occasion  in  question  have  furnished 
himself  with  an  almost  complete  Italian 
series.  There  were  here,  for  example,  a 
couple  of  Borgognes  for  a  guinea,  a  Cana- 
letto  for  2 1  guineas,  a  pair  of  Caravaggios 
for  4  guineas,  a  Correggio  (admittedly 
"after"  in  this  case)  for  ios.,  a  pair  of 
Domenichinos  for  4  guineas,  Guides  for 
even  less,  Tintorettos  from  255.  each,  and 
Paolo  Veronese  from  £iy  155.  Certain 
subjects,  such  as  Canaletto's  "  View  of  the 
Grand  Canal,  Venice,"  Guido's  "  Madonna," 
Giorgione's  "  Woman  taken  in  Adultery," 
and  many  other  pictures  which  are  instinc- 

73 


Pictures 

lively  associated  with  certain  painters,  crop 
up  in  the  saleroom  with  a  frequency  which 
would  lead  one  to  believe  that,  if  the 
respective  artists  lived  and  worked  for  three 
average  lifetimes,  they  could  scarcely  have 
executed  all  the  pictures  by  which  they  are 
most  often  represented  at  auctions.  The 
two  Canalettos  in  the  Dudley  sale,  "  A 
View  in  Venice,"  and  "  A  View  on  the 
Grand  Canal,"  are  the  parents  of  a  very 
large  illegitimate  offspring.  The  former  of 
the  two  above  mentioned  sold  in  1873  for 
^3360,  but  dropped  in  1892  to  ^2055; 
whilst  the  second,  selling  at  the  dispersal 
of  the  Stowe  collection  in  1848  for  105 
guineas,  ran  up  in  1892  to  2100  guineas. 
Another  view  of  the  Grand  Canal  with  the 
Dogana  and  the  Church  of  Sta.  Maria  della 
Solenta,  at  one  time  in  the  collection  of  the 
late  Mrs.  Danby  Harcourt,  Swinton  Park, 
sold  in  1892  for  600  guineas;  and  a  view 
of  Venice,  painted  between  1747  and  1750 
for  the  owner  of  Holland  House,  realised 
in  May  1893  520  guineas.  Every  private 
and  public  gallery,  from  Dresden  to  London, 
has  its  "  View  of  Venice  "  and  the  "  Grand 
Canal,"  and,  considering  the  price  at  which 
they  may  sometimes  be  had,  there  can  be  no 
excuse  for  their  absence. 

First-class   examples   of  Botticelli   occur 
with  considerable  frequency  in  the  auction- 
74 


Pictures 

room,  but,  except  when  in  the  very  finest 
condition,  the  tendency  is  decidedly  down- 
wards. This  artist's  eternal  Madonna  and 
Child  varies  very  much  in  condition,  in 
style,  and  in  price.  One  of  the  very  best 
examples  which  has  ever  appeared  in  an 
auction -room  occurred  in  the  Leyland  sale 
in  May  1892,  when  it  realised  1250  guineas. 
It  is  described  both  by  Dr.  Waagen  and  by 
Messrs.  Crowe  and  Cavalcaselle,  and  is  a 
panel  measuring  35  inches  by  28  inches. 
A  slightly  smaller  example — which  cost  its 
owner  300  guineas — of  the  same  subject  was 
sold  at  the  same  time  for  100  guineas,  and 
yet  another,  still  smaller,  measuring  23! 
inches  by  15!  inches,  went  for  235  guineas. 
Two  others  of  the  same  subject  occurred  in 
the  Dudley  sale,  and  realised  400  guineas 
and  1150  guineas  respectively — the  former 
sold  for  500  guineas  in  1854.  We  have 
heard  it  stated  that  a  genuine  and  perfect 
Correggio  has  never  been  sold  at  Christie's; 
and  the  prices  paid  for  two  alleged  examples 
in  the  Dudley  sale  (155  and  85  guineas) 
would  seem  to  bear  out  this  statement. 
The  pictures  were  in  each  instance  of  angels' 
heads,  the  canvas  being  19  inches  by  19 
inches,  and  20  inches  by  28  inches  respec- 
tively, and  are  described  by  Dr.  Waagen  as 
two  fragments  of  the  celebrated  fresco,  the 
Coronation  of  the  Virgin,  in  the  old  apsis  of 
75 


Pictures 

San  Giovanni  at  Parma,  which  the  chapter 
removed  in  the  last  century  for  the  purpose 
of  enlarging  the  choir ;  and  further,  "  they 
agree  so  entirely  with  the  fragments  of  the 
picture  of  the  Virgin  crowned  by  Christ, 
preserved  in  the  library  at  Parma,  and  also 
with  the  angels  in  the  Assumption  of  the 
Virgin  in  the  Cathedral  at  Parma,  that  no 
doubt  of  their  originality  can  exist."  Dr. 
Waagen  is  an  authority  whose  ruling  few 
will  care  to  question,  but  his  judgment  in 
the  present  instance  is  probably  at  fault. 
Sir  Charles  Eastlake's  example  of  this  master 
sold  in  June  1894  for  720  guineas.  First- 
class  examples  of  Carlo  Crivelli  occur  every 
season.  One  of  the  most  important  of 
recent  years  is  the  Dudley  panel  of  "  The 
Virgin  and  Child  with  Saints,"  measuring 
75  inches  by  77  inches,  which  was  exhibited 
at  Burlington  House  in  1871,  and  again  a 
few  months  before  it  was  sold  in  1892; 
it  realised  the  respectable  sum  of  7000 
guineas,  but  the  average  price  for  good 
pictures  of  this  distinguished  tempera  painter 
is  about  300  guineas,  and  fairly  good 
copies  may  be  picked  up  for  as  many 
shillings.  Much  less  common  is  the  authen- 
tic work  of  Carlo  Dolci,  one  of  the  most 
successful  of  whose  pictures  is  the  "  Head 
of  the  Virgin,"  in  a  blue  drapery,  which 
is  best  known  through  Cooper's  engraving, 
76 


Pictures 

and  which,  selling  in  the  Stowe  collection 
in  1848  for  185  guineas,  realised  at  the 
Dudley  sale  375  guineas. 

One  of  the  most  extraordinary  "  drops " 
of  recent  years  occurred  in  connection  with 
Giorgione's  "  Souper  Venitien  "  (at  one  time 
in  the  collection  of  the  Abb6  Celotti  of 
Florence,  when  it  was  known  as  "  Un  Festin 
Profane"):  at  the  San  Donate  sale,  1870, 
this  picture  sold  for  2200  guineas,  but  at 
the  Dudley  sale  it  was  knocked  down  for 
210  guineas.  Another  considerable  fall  may 
be  bracketed  with  the  Dolci :  Garofalo's 
"A  Grecian  Sacrifice"  realised  1460  guineas 
in  1867,  but  in  1892  its  selling  value  had 
receded  to  380  guineas.  From  a  strictly 
commercial  point  of  view  these  may  be 
regarded  as  Lord  Dudley's  worst  bargains. 
On  the  other  hand,  Filippino  Lippi's  portrait 
of  La  Simonetta,  in  crimson  and  white  dress, 
which  Vasar  describes  as  "  una  giovane  e 
bella  donna  di  collo  notabilmente  lungo," 
and  which  will  be  remembered  by  the  few 
remaining  intimates  of  the  poet  Rogers ; 
in  1856  it  sold  for  185  guineas,  in  1863 
for  460  guineas,  but  in  1892  it  ran  up  to 
1600  guineas.  A  very  much  greater  advance 
was  experienced  in  the  case  of  Raphael's 
famous  "  Crucifixion."  This  work  is  a  panel 
inscribed  "  Raphael  Vrbinus  P.,"  and  was 
painted  for  the  Chapel  of  the  Gavin  or 

77 


Pictures 

Gavari  family  in  the  Dominican  Church  at 
Castello  about  the  year  1500,  where  it  re- 
mained for  nearly  three  hundred  years.  It 
was  acquired  by  a  Frenchman  who  gave 
4000  scudi  for  it,  in  addition  to  a  very  bad 
copy,  which  to  the  present  day  occupies  the 
place  of  the  original.  It  was  afterwards 
purchased  by  the  Prince  de  Canino  for 
10,000  scudi  at  the  sale  of  Cardinal  Fesch. 
It  became  Lord  Dudley's  property  for  pro- 
bably not  more  than  2000  guineas,  and  at 
his  sale  it  realised  10,600  guineas.  It  is 
an  ambitious  picture,  measuring  102  inches 
by  65  inches,  and  is  remarkable  as  having 
been  painted  by  the  master  before  his  seven- 
teenth year.  An  equally  famous  picture  of 
the  same  artist,  "  La  Vierge  a  la  Legende," 
or  "La  Vierge  de  Novar,"  said  to  have 
belonged  to  Charles  the  First,  and  formerly 
in  the  collection  of  Lord  Gwydir  (when  it 
was  ascribed  to  Giulio  Romano),  shows  a 
slight  advance  from  3000  guineas  in  1878 
to  3050  guineas  in  1892.  It  has  been  en- 
graved by  Forster,  and  measures  31^  inches 
by  23^  inches.  Titian's  "  Ariadne  in 
Naxos "  realised  in  the  Walsh  Porter  sale 
in  1810  ^1575;  it  March  1894  it  was 
knocked  down  for  ^105.  These  prices,  of 
course,  represent  the  amounts  paid  for  the 
very  finest  original  examples  of  the  great 
Italian  artist.  The  works  of  Salvator  Rosa 

78 


Pictures 

and  Andrea  del  Sarto  appear  to  decline  in 
value  if  not  in  interest.  The  brilliant  pic- 
ture in  the  Dudley  collection  by  the  first- 
named  painter  of  the  finding  of  Moses,  a 
companion  to  the  justly  admired  example 
in  our  own  National  Gallery,  was  at  one  time 
in  the  Colonna  Palace;  it  was  brought  to 
England  by  W.  Y.  Ottley,  at  whose  sale  in 
1 80 1  it  realised  1050  guineas;  the  Duke 
of  Buckingham  bought  it  from  the  Orleans 
gallery  for  ^"2500,  and  at  his  sale  in  1848 
Lord  Dudley  paid  1000  guineas  for  it;  in 
1892  it  only  fetched  450  guineas.  The 
"Pieta"  of  Andrea  del  Sarto  sold  in  1878 
for  1700  guineas;  in  1892  it  realised  945 
guineas.  Tintorettos  shew  a  considerable 
fluctuation.  One  of  the  most  successful 
representations  of  his  favourite  subjects  of 
Adam  and  Eve,  formerly  in  the  possession 
of  the  Orlandini  family  of  Florence,  sold  at 
the  San  Donate  sale  in  1870  for  240  guineas, 
and  at  the  Dudley  sale  for  610  guineas.  On 
the  other  hand,  his  portrait  of  a  Venetian 
Admiral,  which  realised  at  the  Hamilton 
Palace  sale  ^1155,  dropped  to  860  guineas 
in  1893.  The  Tintorettos  in  the  Leyland 
sale  of  1893  realised  from  50  guineas  to 
105  guineas,  probably  much  less  than  half 
the  price  at  which  they  were  acquired  by 
their  late  owner. 

Pictures  by  modern  English  (or  British) 
79 


Pictures 

artists  exhibit  a  constantly  recurring  fluctua- 
tion. This  is  more  especially  apt  to  happen 
when  the  unsold  works  of  recently  deceased 
artists  are  sold  together.  Take,  for  example, 
the  batch  of  nearly  three  hundred  pictures 
and  drawings  of  the  late  John  Constable, 
which  were  sold  in  two  portions  in  Novem- 
ber 1892  and  June  1893.  Only  in  a  very 
few  instances  were  three  figures  reached,  and, 
as  a  general  rule,  the  amounts  did  not  exceed 
twenty  or  thirty  guineas  each.  Several 
realised  from  two  to  six  guineas  apiece, 
certainly  not  an  extravagant  price  for  the 
work  of  an  R.A.  On  the  other  hand, 
among  the  pictures  of  Mr.  J.  S.  Hodgson 
sold  in  June  1893,  a  faultless  picture  by 
Constable,  entitled  "Hampstead  Heath," 
painted  in  1830,  and  measuring  26  inches 
by  39  inches,  sold  for  2550  guineas.  Per- 
haps the  very  finest  example  of  this  artist 
at  his  best  which  has  been  sold  at  auction 
is  the  scene  on  the  river  Stowe,  some- 
times called  "  Constable's  White  Horse," 
for  many  years  the  property  of  the  late 
Richard  Hemming,  at  whose  sale  in  April 
1894  it  realised  6200  guineas;  less  than 
forty  years  ago  it  was  purchased  for  600 
guineas.  The  "  remaining  works  "  of  three 
well-known  members  of  the  Royal  Institute 
of  Painters  in  Water-Colours  have  come 
under  the  hammer  during  the  last  year  or 
80 


Pictures 

two  with  unfavourable  results.  The  average 
price  of  Charles  James  Lewis's  works,  among 
which  were  many  fine  examples  exhibited 
at  the  Royal  Academy,  the  Royal  Institute, 
and  elsewhere,  was  only  about  £7  each ; 
some,  indeed,  going  for  three  guineas  per 
pair,  and  in  only  one  instance  were  32 
guineas  reached !  The  same  may  be  said 
of  the  works  of  Thomas  Collier,  whilst 
those  of  Paul  J.  Naftel  show  an  average  of 
about  ^4  each.  With  the  exception  of  a 
few  unfinished  or  hastily  executed  sketches, 
these  pictures  would  not  disfigure  any  gallery. 
As  they  are,  for  the  most  part,  appropriately 
framed,  it  may  be  questioned  if  they  realised 
actual  out-of-pocket  expenses.  The  sale  of 
the  remaining  works  of  the  late  Vicat  Cole, 
R.A.,  may  be  taken  as  the  most  recent 
illustration,  not  only  of  the  change  in  pic- 
ture fashions,  but  of  the  extraordinary  de- 
preciation which  inevitably  occurs  when  a 
large  number  of  works  by  the  same  hand 
are  thrown  on  the  market.  This  collection 
comprised  nearly  600  sketches  and  finished 
studies  in  oil  and  water-colours,  and  154 
items  realised  a  total  of  £770 ;  the  highest 
for  a  single  picture  being  30  guineas. 

Much  inferior  work,  which  at  one  time 

was   fashionable,   and   therefore    costly,   has 

experienced  a  fall  which  scarcely  justifies  the 

expectation  of  it  ever  rising  again.     This  is 

81  F 


Pictures 

especially  the  case  with  eminent  R.A.s  whose 
facility  at  turning  out  quantity  is  more 
conspicuous  than  their  regard  for  quality. 
Wealthy  collectors  have  (or  had)  a  practice 
of  purchasing  direct  from  the  artist,  and 
this  naturally  precludes  the  possibility  of 
setting  up  any  sort  of  comparison  between 
the  prices  originally  paid  and  subsequently 
realised,  as  the  purchasers  are  in  most  cases 
dead  before  the  pictures  are  dispersed 
through  the  medium  of  the  auction-room. 
To  take  as  a  collective  example  the  water- 
colour  drawings  of  the  modern  English  and 
Continental  schools,  the  property  of  Messrs. 
Murietta,  and  sold  in  January  1894.  In 
this  collection  nearly  every  modern  painter 
of  any  eminence  was  represented,  including 
Copley  Fielding,  Birket  Foster,  R.  W.  Mac- 
beth, W.  Collins,  T.  S.  Cooper,  David  Cox, 
F.  Goodall,  Seymour  Lucas,  and  foreign 
artists  such  as  Pradillo,  Mesdag,  Madrazo, 
Jacquet,  and  Hernandez,  but  the  1282  lots 
only  realised  .£21,336,  or  less  than  an 
average  of  £20  each.  The  exceedingly 
extensive  and  representative  collection  of 
pictures  and  water-colour  drawings  of  the 
late  Henry  Wallis,  of  the  French  Gallery, 
sold  in  1 892-93,  may  be  bracketed  with  those 
of  the  Muriettas  from  their  not  altogether 
dissimilar  character,  and  the  absurdly  low 
figures  at  which  some  of  the  most  successful 
82 


Pictures 

works  of  distinguished  painters  were  knocked 
down.  The  average  of  the  Wallis  pictures 
was  lower  than  that  of  the  Murietta,  but  only 
slightly  so. 

There  is  a  sustained  and  very  healthy 
revival  in  the  taste  for  the  best  pictures  of 
the  older  English  masters,  and  some  of  the 
prices  paid  within  the  last  year  or  two  are 
very  remarkable  when  compared  with  pre- 
vious results.  This  class  of  art  has  been 
much  too  severely  neglected,  and  our  own 
National  Gallery  is  conspicuously  weak  in 
this  respect.  This  feature  in  the  history  of 
picture  sales  is  more  remarkable  than  that 
which  deals  with  the  past  and  present  prices 
of  the  best  works  of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds 
and  his  great  rival,  George  Romney.  Indeed, 
the  pictures  of  these  two  great  portrait 
painters  may  be  regarded  as  having  formed 
the  sensation  of  the  last  two  seasons.  During 
the  first  quarter  of  a  century  after  the  death 
of  both  artists,  some  of  their  most  successful 
examples  realised  at  auction  considerably  less 
than  ;£ioo  each,  and  so  far  as  Romney  is 
concerned,  ^20  was  regarded  as  an  extrava- 
gant price  to  pay  under  the  hammer.  At 
the  sale  of  the  late  Miss  Romney's  effects  in 
May  1894,  a  portrait  of  Mrs.  Tickell  (Miss 
Linley)  sold  for  1150  guineas.  At  the 
artist's  sale  in  1807  it  was  bought  in  for 
four  guineas ;  a  portrait  of  Mrs.  Billington 

83 


Pictures 

as  St.  Cecilia  realised  900  guineas,  its  former 
price  being  eight  and  a  half  guineas;  a 
portrait  of  Mrs.  Inchbald,  the  authoress, 
950  guineas,  and  of  James  Thomas  Paine, 
800  guineas. 

The  portrait  of  Mrs.  Thornhill  reached 
1150  guineas  in  July  1894.  In  the  past 
season  (1895),  three  works  by  this  artist 
realised  a  total  of  over  ^"5000  at  the  James 
Price  sale,  or  very  nearly  double  the  amount 
which  Romney  earned  in  one  of  his  best 
years.  When  it  is  remembered  that  Romney 
rarely  received  as  much  as  ^100  even  for  a 
whole-length  portrait,  the  high  prices  which 
have  recently  been  paid  for  some  of  his  pic- 
tures may  well  be  advanced  in  proof  of  the 
theory  that  the  best  English  masters  are 
rapidly  coming  into  favour. 

The  same  remark  applies  with  equal  force 
to  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  whose  portrait  of 
Lady  Betty  Delm6  (and  children)  sold  in 
July  1894  for  11,000  guineas,  the  highest 
price  ever  paid  for  a  picture  at  auction  in 
this  country.  On  the  same  day,  the  portrait 
of  the  Hon.  Mrs.  Monckton  sold  for  7500 
guineas,  but  it  had  been  slightly  varnished; 
in  all  other  respects  the  two  pictures  were  in 
the  finest  possible  condition,  and  came  direct 
from  the  families  for  whom  they  were  speci- 
ally painted.  These  are,  of  course,  essentially 
"  fancy "  prices,  which  can  only  be  expected 
84 


Pictures 

for  the  very  finest  pictures  in  perfect  condi- 
tion. As  an  instance  of  the  greatly  enhanced 
value  of  even  moderately  good  examples  of 
this  master,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  the 
portrait  of  Mrs.  Matthew,  the  patroness  of 
art,  painted  in  1777,  which  sold  in  1876  for 
900  guineas,  realised  4400  guineas  at  the 
Duchess  of  Montrose's  sale  in  1894. 

The  sale  season  of  1895  will  take  rank, 
so  far  as  Gainsborough  is  concerned,  as  per- 
haps the  most  remarkable  in  the  commercial 
history  of  his  pictures.  One  sale  alone  con- 
tained ten  works  attributed  to  him,  but  of 
which  at  least  five  were  genuine  examples  of 
the  very  first  class.  The  very  finest  speci- 
men of  this  exquisite  colourist  was  the  per- 
fect and  beautiful  portrait  of  Lady  Mulgrave, 
an  oval  (29  inches  by  24  inches),  in  white 
dress,  black  mantle,  and  hair  poudre ;  it 
realised  10,000  guineas — thirteen  years  ago 
it  changed  hands  for  1070  guineas!  The 
celebrated  portrait  of  the  Duchess  of  Devon- 
shire realised  in  1876  the  highest  amount, 
10,100  guineas,  ever  paid  for  a  Gains- 
borough, so  that  the  "Lady  Mulgrave," 
which  is  quite  a  small  picture,  comes  in 
a  good  second.  At  the  same  sale,  that  of 
the  late  James  Price,  a  three-quarter  length 
portrait  of  Lady  Clarges  brought  2000 
guineas ;  seventeen  years  ago  it  was  sold 
for  350  guineas! — and  an  excellent  portrait 

85 


Pictures 

of  Viscount  Mountmorres  realised  a  simi- 
lar amount ;  the  renowned  chef-  d'ceuvre 
"  Repose"  only  fetched  1400  guineas.  The 
last-named  work  is  an  exceedingly  beautiful 
landscape,  as  fine  of  its  kind  as  anything 
offered  for  sale  during  the  last  two  seasons 
— but  the  rage  is  for  Gainsborough  portraits 
of  pretty  women,  and  not  for  Gainsborough 
landscapes.  At  the  Duchess  of  Montrose's 
sale  in  May  1895,  this  artist's  three-quarter 
length  of  Madame  Le  Brun,  in  white  dress 
trimmed  with  lace,  sold  for  2150  guineas. 

Equally  remarkable  illustrations  of  this 
upward  tendency  have  also  occurred  in  con- 
nection with  David  Cox.  When  it  is  re- 
membered how  difficult  this  artist  found 
it  to  dispose  of  his  pictures  and  drawings, 
the  prices  at  which  they  are  now  eagerly 
acquired  become  all  the  more  remarkable. 
Cox  considered  fifty  guineas  a  very  fair 
price  for  some  of  the  most  carefully  exe- 
cuted of  his  works.  It  was  at  this 
figure  that  he  sold  "  The  Hayfield,"  which 
in  1875  realised  ^2950  in  the  Quilter 
sale;  whilst  at  the  dispersion  in  1889  of 
another  portion  of  the  same  collection,  six- 
teen drawings  came  under  the  hammer  at  sums 
varying  from  100  guineas  to  2300  guineas. 
The  three  pictures,  "  Counting  the  Flock," 
"Driving  Home  the  Flock,"  and  "Collecting 
the  Flock,"  realised  in  1888  1980  guineas, 
86 


Pictures 

1300  guineas,  and  2250  guineas  respectively. 
The  first-named,  it  may  be  mentioned, 
realised  at  the  Levy  sale  in  1876  2300 
guineas.  One  of  the  largest  of  this  artist's 
works,  "  Collecting  the  Flocks,  North- West 
France,"  sold  in  the  Bullock  collection, 
1870,  for  400  guineas,  but  ran  to  1450 
guineas  in  June  1892.  A  series  of  two 
dozen  sketches  by  Cox  occurred  in  the  sale 
of  the  late  Peter  Allen's  pictures  in  March 
1893,  and  the  best  of  them  went  well 
into  three  figures,  whilst  the  largest  did 
not  exceed  30  inches  by  25  inches,  and 
the  majority  were  only  about  half  that  size. 
The  matchless  "Vale  of  Clwyd,"  which 
sold  in  the  Murietta  collection,  3Oth  April 
1892,  for  4500  guineas,  marks  the  high- 
water  mark  of  David  Cox's  works.  The 
artist  himself  valued  it  at  ^95,  and  ex- 
changed it  with  a  Midland  dealer,  who  sold 
it  for  £*jo.  In  1860  it  was  knocked  down 
for  265  guineas  at  the  Briscoe  sale;  in  1868 
it  sold  for  .£480,  and  in  1872  for  ^2000. 
Peter  de  Wint  and  Copley  Fielding  may, 
for  several  reasons,  be  considered  in  the 
same  paragraph  as  David  Cox.  More  for- 
tunate in  his  lifetime  than  Cox,  De  Wint 
sometimes  received  a  fair  value  for  his  pic- 
tures and  drawings,  although  they  are  not 
now  nearly  so  much  in  request  or  realise 
such  high  prices.  Two  of  the  best  which 
87 


Pictures 

have  been  sold  at  auction  in  recent  years  are 
"Lancaster"  and  "Lincoln,"  in  the  Quilter 
sale  of  1889,  realising  .£1155  and  ^1753; 
in  1875  tnev  were  knocked  down  for  ^950 
and  ^1732,  and  for  neither  did  the  artist 
receive  more  than  30  guineas.  There  was 
an  excellent  series  of  fourteen  examples  of 
this  artist  in  Peter  Allen's  collection,  where 
some  of  the  smallest  and  least  important 
sold  for  over  50  guineas  each ;  the  highest 
sum,  265  guineas,  going  for  the  "  Hay  Har- 
vest." In  March  1892  his  "  Bolton  Abbey  " 
sold  for  900  guineas.  Some  of  the  best 
examples  of  Copley  Fielding's  works  came 
under  the  hammer  in  April  1889,  when  Mrs. 
Sarah  Austin's  collection  of  water-colour 
drawings  was  dispersed.  Neither  of  the 
five  examples,  however,  realised  four  figures, 
the  largest  amounts  being  ^903  paid  for  the 
"Fairy  Lake"  and  ^672  for  the  "View 
from  Box  Hill."  Quite  a  large  number 
have  also  been  sold  during  the  past  season 
or  two,  one  of  the  best  being  Peter  Allen's 
"  Off  the  East  Coast,"  for  which  310  guineas 
were  given. 

Two  very  fine  pictures  of  J.  F.  Lewis 
occurred  in  the  Price  sale,  1892;  the  well- 
known  "  Lilium  Auratum,"  which  in  the 
Quilter  sale,  1889,  realised  1050  guineas, 
now  fell  to  810  guineas  ;  while  "  The 
Bezestein  Bazaar  of  El  Khan  Khalil,  Cairo," 
88 


Pictures 

fetched  1090  guineas.  In  April  1893  "The 
Hosh  (courtyard)  of  the  House  of  the 
Coptic  Patriarch,  Cairo,"  formerly  in  the 
collection  of  the  late  William  Leaf,  at 
whose  sale  in  1875  "lt:  went  f°r  1850  guineas, 
dropped  in  1893  to  1650  guineas.  Probably 
the  highest  amount  at  which  any  example  of 
this  artist  has  been  sold  recently  occurred  in 
connection  with  "  The  Commentator  of  the 
Koran,"  which  was  painted  for  the  late  Sir 
William  Bowman  in  1868,  at  whose  sale, 
in  June  1893,  it  fetched  2550  guineas.  In 
the  case  of  W.  J.  Miiller,  as  of  Lewis,  very 
fair  pictures  have  been  sold  during  the  past 
two  seasons  for  from  about  100  guineas  to 
400  guineas;  but  in  1888  Mr.  Bolckow's 
picture  of  "Ancient  Tombs  and  Dwellings 
in  Lycia"  by  Muller  realised  the  very  high  and 
perhaps  maximum  figure  of  3750  guineas. 
Two  other  pictures  by  the  same  artist 
realised  1500  guineas  each  in  the  same  year; 
but  one  of  these,  "  The  Bay  of  Naples " 
(1839),  had  sold  for  2100  guineas  in  the 
Gillott  sale,  1872.  "The  Opium-Eater," 
which  in  1877  sold  for  470  guineas,  fell 
in  May  1893  to  170  guineas.  Mr.  Price's 
example,  "  A  Waterfall  in  Wales,"  sold  for 
the  respectable  sum  of  800  guineas ;  whilst 
the  Hon.  F.  Baring's  small  picture  of  "  Chil- 
dren Fishing,  Gillingham,"  went  for  just  half 
that  sum  in  June  1893.  Lord  Cheylesmore's 


Pictures 

very  small  picture  (8  inches  by  n  inches) 
sold  in  1892  for  32  guineas,  or  nearly 
double  the  amount  paid  for  it  in  1868. 
The  public  favour  seems  to  have  deserted 
for  the  time  the  works  of  Sir  Charles  East- 
lake,  W.  Etty,  and  Sir  A.  W.  Callcott. 
Etty's  ambitious  picture  of  Joan  of  Arc  in 
three  parts  has  changed  hands  on  two  or 
three  occasions  for  very  large  sums,  and  100 
guineas  for  either  of  the  three  portions  would 
not  be  an  extravagant  price;  in  January  1893, 
however,  one  of  these  compartments  went  for 
seven  and  a  half  guineas.  The  same  artist's  "A 
Bivouac  of  Cupid  and  his  Company  "  realised 
260  guineas  at  the  Price  sale ;  in  1 845  it  sold 
for  370  guineas,  and  in  1868  for  221  guineas. 
In  April  1893  this  artist's  "  Mars,  Venus,  and 
Cupid,"  and  "  Cupid,"  went  for  230  guineas 
and  5 1  guineas  respectively,  neither  of  which 
amount  can  at  all  represent  the  original 
prices.  In  1888  "The  Judgment  of  Paris" 
and  "  The  Triumph  of  Cleopatra  "  sold  for 
^504  and  ^250,  the  previous  prices  being 
^850  and  ^451  respectively.  Sir  Charles 
Eastlake's  picture  of  "  The  Sisters "  sold 
in  the  Rogers  collection  for  420  guineas; 
in  April  1893  it  changed  hands  for  35 
guineas,  the  same  amount  being  paid  in  1892 
for  the  same  artist's  large  canvas,  "Gaston 
de  Foix  taking  Leave  of  his  Lady  on  the 
Eve  of  the  Battle  of  Ravenna."  In  1845 
90 


Pictures 

this  rather  striking  work  was  appraised  at 
only  190  guineas.  Sir  A.  W.  Callcott's 
picture  of  "Laurence  and  his  Dog,"  which 
sold  in  the  Brunei  collection,  1860,  for  370 
guineas,  dropped  in  June  1893  to  42  guineas. 
The  works  of  T.  Webster,  R.A.,  which  at 
one  time  realised  high  prices,  have  also 
experienced  a  very  general  fall.  For  ex- 
ample, "  Good  Night,"  which  sold  in  the 
Bicknell  collection,  1863,  for  ^1207,  ios., 
and  in  the  Betts  collection,  1868,  for  ^877, 
155.,  was  sold  with  the  Brocklebank  pictures 
in  1893  for  350  guineas.  Lord  Cheyles- 
more's  example  of  this  artist,  "The  Present 
to  the  Lady  of  the  Village,"  dropped  from 
250  guineas  in  1870  to  70  guineas  in 

1893- 

The  works  of  C.  Stanfield  are  by  no  means 
a  steady  article  of  commerce,  and  the  general 
tendency  is  not  at  all  upward;  but  quite 
a  phenomenal  exception  occurred  in  Lord 
Cheylesmore's  sale,  1892,  when  the  splendid 
picture  of  "St.  Michael's  Mount,"  which 
sold  in  1870  for  250  guineas,  now  ran  up 
to  3000  guineas.  Landseers  differ  almost  as 
greatly  in  quality  as  in  price.  A  unique 
series  of  thirty-three  examples  came  up  for 
sale  with  the  collection  of  the  late  Lord 
Cheylesmore  in  May  1892,  and  affords  an 
easy  medium  of  comparison.  The  best 
pictures  appear  to  increase  in  the  same  ratio 

91 


Pictures 

as  the  less  excellent  examples  decline.  "  The 
Monarch  of  the  Glen,"  so  well  known 
through  T.  Landseer's  very  successful  en- 
graving, is  a  masterpiece,  and  is  never  likely 
to  sustain  any  very  pronounced  depreciation 
in  value.  In  the  late  Lord  Londesborough's 
sale  it  fetched  6200  guineas,  which  amount 
was  increased  by  700  guineas  in  1892.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  "  Taming  of  the  Shrew,'* 
which  realised  1430  guineas,  now  dropped 
to  1150  guineas — not  a  serious  drop,  per- 
haps, considering  the  number  of  pictures 
by  the  same  master  sold  at  the  same  time. 
A  much  more  serious  fall,  however,  was  ex- 
perienced by  "  Lady  Godiva's  Prayer,"  which 
in  1874  was  appraised  at  3200  guineas,  and 
was  now  sold  for  900  guineas.  "  The  High- 
land Cabin,"  which,  in  the  Duchess  of  Bed- 
ford's collection  in  1853,  went  for  150 
guineas,  now  sold  for  450  guineas;  "The 
Sentinel,"  which  sold  in  1864  for  240 
guineas,  now  realised  180  guineas;  and 
"  All  that  remains  of  the  glory  of  William 
Smith,"  which,  twenty  years  ago,  went  for 
320  guineas,  was  valued  in  1892  at  290 
guineas.  As  the  majority  of  the  other 
Landseers  in  this  collection  were  purchased 
from  the  artist,  no  comparison  can  be  con- 
veniently instituted  between  their  past  and 
present  values.  As  two  further  illustrations 
of  the  rise  and  fall  respectively  in  Landseers, 
92 


Pictures 

we  may  mention  "Taking  a  Buck,"  which 
in  the  Manley  Hall  sale,  1888,  realised  1950 
guineas,  dropped  in  1892  to  620  guineas; 
and  "Braemar,"  which  in  1868  sold  for 
4000  guineas,  had  advanced  at  the  Bolckow 
sale,  in  1888,  to  j£si97-  The  celebrated 
work,  "  Chevy,"  for  which  Landseer  is  said 
to  have  received  ^5000,  realised  in  the 
Hemming  sale  in  April  1894,  3750  guineas. 
The  pictures  of  Wilkie  and  David  Roberts 
vary,  like  those  of  Landseer,  in  quality  and 
price.  The  subject  sometimes  influences  the 
latter,  for  subjects  as  well  as  schools  have 
their  vicissitudes.  Lord  Dudley's  example 
of  the  latter,  "Jerusalem,  looking  South," 
formerly  in  the  Hootan  Hall  collection, 
dropped  from  850  guineas  in  1875  to  140 
guineas  in  1892.  On  the  other  hand,  this 
artist's  very  fine  picture,  with  the  legend, 
"  Baalbec  Ruins,"  had  increased  from  750 
guineas  in  1813  to  ^1627,  los.  The  well- 
known  picture  entitled  "The  Letter  of 
Introduction "  of  Sir  David  Wilkie,  had 
increased  in  value  from  450  guineas  in  1 842 
to  ^£2152,  i os.  in  May  1893.  First-class 
pictures  by  Wilkie  and  Roberts  will  probably 
always  fetch  high  prices ;  but  the  few  fore- 
going facts  are  a  sufficient  indication  of  the 
extent  to  which  even  the  very  best  works  of 
the  most  eminent  artists  fluctuate  within  the 
short  space  of  forty  years.  The  same  rise 

93 


Pictures 

and  fall  occur  in  connection  with  the  pictures 
of  Turner.  The  vignette  title  of  Killie- 
crankie,  engraved  in  Sir  Walter  Scott's  prose 
works,  realised  200  guineas  in  the  Novar 
collection,  June  1877;  in  January  1893  it 
dropped  to  66  guineas.  The  engraved  draw- 
ing of  Cassiobury,  which  realised  415  guineas 
in  1875,  had  dropped  to  330  guineas  in  June 
1892.  As  a  contrast,  the  masterpiece  known 
as  "  Modern  Italy :  the  Pfifferari,"  was 
knocked  down  in  1867  for  ^3465,  in  1868 
for  ^2961,  and  with  the  modern  picture 
of  the  Novar  collection,  1878,  for  ^5250, 
at  which  sum  the  late  David  Price  became 
the  owner.  At  his  sale  in  1892  it  real- 
ised ^"5460.  "  Helvoetsluys  "  brought  6400 
guineas,  and  "  A  View  of  the  Thames  from 
Mortlake"  5200  guineas,  in  June  1895. 

The  pictures  of  Peter  Nasmyth  and  P.  F. 
Poole  may  be  considered  together  as  repre- 
sentatives of  the  two  most  extreme  instances 
of  the  rise  and  fall  of  pictures.  Even  the 
smaller  works,  which  cannot  at  all  be  classed 
among  the  best  of  the  former  artist,  are  de- 
cidedly firm.  The  two  examples  which 
occurred  in  the  Field  sale  in  June  1893 
came  in  this  category ;  for  the  two  charming 
little  landscapes  sold  at  610  guineas  and  350 
guineas  had  previously  come  under  the 
hammer  for  405  guineas  and  390  guineas  re- 
spectively. One  of  the  very  finest  landscapes 
94 


Pictures 

of  this  artist,  "  A  View  in  Surrey,"  measuring 
only  23!  inches  by  33^  inches,  sold  in  the 
Price  collection  for  2500  guineas,  and  an- 
other, "On  the  Firth  of  Forth,"  which  is 
scarcely  half  the  size,  for  560  guineas. 
Poolers  pictures,  almost  without  exception, 
have  fallen  sadly  in  the  estimation  of  buyers. 
They  are  carefully  painted  and  perfect  in 
nearly  every  respect ;  but  the  public  taste  has 
changed  with  regard  to  them,  and  they  are 
to  be  had  at  about  a  twelfth  of  the  prices 
originally  paid  for  them.  The  half-dozen 
in  the  Price  collection  represent  a  very  heavy 
balance  on  the  wrong  side  in  the  late  owner's 
picture  bills.  Although  the  elder  Linnell's 
landscapes  do  not  invariably  maintain  a  high 
level,  their  general  advance  in  public  estima- 
tion naturally  carries  an  enhanced  value. 
Mr.  Price  possessed  six  works  by  this  artist, 
and  if  the  sums  paid  by  him  and  received  by 
his  executors  were  placed  side  by  side,  the 
balance  would  more  than  justify  his  wisdom 
in  purchasing  them.  For  instance,  "  The 
Timber  Waggon,"  which  in  1880  sold  for 
850  guineas,  in  1892  realised  3100  guineas. 

The  pictures  by  Dante  Gabriel  Rossetti, 
of  which  a  dozen  occurred  in  the  Leyland 
sale,  1892,  have  probably  reached  their  zenith. 
Only  two,  "  Veronica  Veronese  "  and  "  The 
Blessed  Damozel,"  reached  four  figures — 
1000  guineas  and  980  guineas  respectively 

95 


Pictures 

— whilst  the  well-known  panel,  "  The  Loving 
Cup,"  sold  for  820  guineas.  But  the  vagaries 
of  fashion  are  strange  and  unaccountable,  and 
the  time  may  come  when  the  distinctly  genre 
works  of  Rossetti  will  prove  a  veritable  gold 
mine  to  those  who  have  speculated  more  or 
less  heavily  in  this  extremely  hazardous  com- 
modity. 

Of  modern  living  artists  whose  works  have 
fallen  most  grievously  in  the  market,  Mr.  F. 
Goodall  comes  at  the  head.  In  the  Murietta 
sale  there  were  nearly  three  dozen  examples, 
which  sold  at  figures  varying  from  5  to  54 
guineas ;  one  of  these,  "  A  Bazaar  in  Cairo," 
which  was  bought  in  in  1871  for  225  guineas, 
sold  for  33  guineas.  The  well-known  picture, 
"Brittany  Peasants'  Dance,"  which  in  1879 
sold  for  760  guineas,  in  May  last  went  for 
325  guineas.  "Rebecca  at  the  Well,"  which 
at  the  Bolckow  sale  in  1888  realised  770 
guineas,  sold  with  Lord  Cheylesmore's  pic- 
tures last  year  for  555  guineas.  There  were 
six  other  important  if  small  examples  of  Mr. 
Goodall's  works  in  the  last-named  collection, 
but  they  were  all  purchased  direct  from  the 
artist,  and,  as  half-a-dozen  of  them  showed  a 
total  of  457  guineas,  it  may  safely  be  assumd 
that  there  was  a  heavy  financial  loss  over  the 
transaction. 

Pictures  by  other  living  artists  almost  with- 
out exception  fare  ill  so  soon  as  they  appear 


Pictures 

in  the  auction-room,  and  we  do  not  propose 
to  enter  into  any  exhaustive  survey  of  this 
phase.  A  few  illustrations,  however,  will  be 
of  general  interest.  One  of  the  most  notable 
drops  occurred  at  the  Price  sale  in  connection 
with  Sir  John  Millais'  pre-Raphaelite  freak, 
"  Apple  Blossom "  (exhibited  at  the  Royal 
Academy  in  1859  under  the  title  of 
"Spring"):  in  1876  this  picture  sold  for 
1390  guineas;  in  1886  it  was  appreciated 
at  the  diminished  figure  of  1000  guineas, 
whilst  in  1892  it  fell  to  660  guineas.  "St. 
Martin's  Summer,"  which  was  bought  in 
1883  for  ^1365,  was  knocked  down  in 
1888  for  ^882.  The  best  examples  of 
this  distinguished  artist's  work  generally  run 
into  four  figures,  as  witness  "  The  Sound 
of  Many  Waters,"  which  was  painted  ex- 
pressly for  Mr.  Price  in  1876,  and  which 
sold  in  1892  for  2900  guineas.  "The  Eve 
of  St.  Agnes,"  one  of  his  most  poetic  works, 
sold  for  2 100  guineas  in  1 892,  and  "  Dropped 
from  the  Nest"  for  1 200  guineas  in  April  1893. 
The  works  of  Mr.  Alma  Tadema  and  Sir 
E.  Burne  Jones  maintain  almost  uniformly 
high  figures,  particularly  those  of  the  latter, 
whose  fine  picture  entitled  "  The  Mirror  of 
Venus"  realised  in  the  Leyland  sale  3400 
guineas,  and  whose  "  Merlin  and  Vivien " 
was  sold  on  the  same  day  for  3600  guineas. 
Two  other  pictures  by  this  artist  each  realised 
97  G 


Pictures 

1350  guineas  in  the  same  sale,  and  it  may 
be  doubted  if  a  similarly  high  level  can  be 
quoted  in  connection  with  a  series  of  six 
or  seven  pictures  by  a  living  English  artist. 
The  six  pictures  by  Mr.  Alma  Tadema  in 
the  Murietta  collection  realised  sums  varying 
from  455  guineas  to  1400  guineas,  at  which 
latter  amount  "  A  Patron  of  Sculpture  "  was 
knocked  down.  "  Fredegonda,"  which  was 
one  of  the  features  of  the  Royal  Academy  of 
1 3  80,  sold  in  the  Price  collection  for  980 
guineas,  but  it  was  returned  as  somewhat 
damaged,  and  when  again  put  up  for  sale  in 
April  1893  it  went  for  750  guineas.  The 
genre  pictures  of  Mr.  Faed  and  Mr.  J.  C. 
Hook  maintain  a  high  average — a  fact  with 
which  no  lover  of  truly  conscientious  work 
will  complain.  Mr.  Faed's  "  Sunday  in  the 
Backwoods"  sold  for  790  guineas  in  1867, 
but  in  the  Cheylesmore  sale  it  advanced  to 
1700  guineas.  Mr.  T.  S.  Cooper  has  painted 
far  too  many  pictures,  with  the  very  natural 
result  that  even  his  best  examples  realise  a 
fall  every  time  they  occur  in  the  open  mar- 
ket. The  same  may  be  said  of  Mr.  W.  P. 
Frith,  for  some  of  the  pictures  by  which  he 
is  best  known  appear  to  be  the  least  appre- 
ciated when  they  come  under  the  hammer. 
"  Dolly  Varden,"  for  example,  realised  1000 
guineas  at  the  Dickens  sale,  1870;  in  1888 
it  was  appraised  at  ^777.  "  Bedtime  "  also 
98 


Pictures 

dropped  from  410  guineas  in  1854  to  138 
guineas.  "  Claude  Duval "  sold  for  close 
upon  ^"2000  in  1875;  in  1892  it  dropped 
to  600  guineas. 

The  examples  of  the  President  of  the 
Royal  Academy  from  which  a  comparison 
may  be  drawn  between  their  past  and  present 
prices  are  not  numerous.  During  the  season 
of  1893  only  one  example  of  Sir  Frederick 
Leighton's  more  ambitious  work  has  occurred 
in  the  market,  namely,  "  The  Daphnephoria," 
about  which  so  much  that  was  foolish  was 
written  and  published  at  the  time  of  its 
sale.  This  picture,  which  is  5  feet  7  inches 
by  17  feet,  has  been  engraved,  and  was 
exhibited  at  the  Royal  Academy  in  1876. 
It  realised  3750  guineas.  It  was  immediately 
followed  by  two  other  examples  of  the  same 
artist,  "  Sisters  "  and  "  Lieder  ohne  Worte," 
which  realised  80  guineas  and  160  guineas 
respectively.  "Jezebel  and  Ahab  meeting 
Elijah  the  Tishbite,"  which  sold  in  1882  for 
^425,  realised  115  guineas  in  July  1893. 
Of  the  productions  of  a  former  P.R.A., 
Sir  Francis  Grant,  examples  are  procurable 
for  a  very  moderate  consideration ;  by  the 
way,  this  gentleman  had  the  opulent  courage 
to  declare  on  one  occasion  that  he  had  never 
heard  of  Hazlitt  as  an  art-critic. 

That  pictures  by  the  numerous  class  to 
which  the  term  of  ordinary  artists  may  be 
99 


Pictures 

applied  should  experience  uncomplimentary 
falls  in  the  auction-rooms  is  not  surprising. 
Inability  to  paint  is  almost  an  accomplish- 
ment now-a-days.  The  dreary  monotony  of 
all  our  spring  exhibitions  is  a  sufficient  proof 
of  the  prevalence  of  the  painting  epidemic ; 
and  the  startling  number  of  picture-shops, 
in  which  every  phase  of  modern  art  is  dis- 
played, is  a  still  further  manifestation  of  the 
untiring  efforts  of  the  quasi-artists.  The 
embryo  painter  no  sooner  begins  to  spoil 
good  canvas  than  he  almost  immediately 
begins  to  manufacture  pictures  by  the  score. 
It  is  an  appalling  fact  that  these  people  make, 
in  many  instances,  hundreds  a  year  out  of 
their  dexterity  :  it  is  a  much  greater  calamity 
that  they  consider  themselves  artists.  Their 
patrons  are  all  too  easily  deluded  into  the 
same  belief.  The  latter  pay  comparatively 
big  prices  for  articles  which  have  no  (or  very 
little)  intrinsic  value  or  merit.  The  sale- 
room is  the  great  leveller  of  all  spurious 
claims.  A  year  or  so  ago,  at  Christie's,  a 
fairly  well-known  artist  bought  back,  in  the 
presence  of  the  present  writer,  a  picture  for 
^48  for  which  the  late  owner  had  paid  him 
300  guineas.  Still  more  recently  a  picture 
for  which  the  late  owner  paid  the  artist  £$o 
went  a-begging  for  rather  more  than  as  many 
shillings.  Similar  instances  might  be  quoted 
ad  infinitum.  The  man  of  means  with  a 
100 


Pictures 

weakness  in  the  direction  of  pictures  is  as 
fair  game  for  the  rising  artist  as  for  the 
enterprising  philanthropist ;  the  greatest  suf- 
ferers are  the  legatees,  with  whom  disappoint- 
ment in  regard  to  modern  pictures  must  be 
peculiarly  keen  and  disagreeably  common. 
So  long  as  there  are  friends,  relations,  and  a 
credulous  public,  so  long  will  there  be  a 
plentiful  supply  of  bad  or  neutral  work  in 
the  guise  of  pictures. 


101 


Pottery 

and  Porcelain 


Pottery 

and  Porcelain 


OF  all  tastes,  that  for  pottery  and  porcelain 
has  been  from  time  to  time  the  most  pre- 
valent. Indeed,  if  a  census  with  the  object 
of  ascertaining  what  the  inhabitants  of  Great 
Britain  collect  were  taken,  it  would  certainly 
be  surprising  to  find  how  many  people  con- 
fessed to  a  weakness  for  china,  as  it  is  gene- 
rically  termed,  or  "  china-earth,"  as  it  used 
to  be  called  in  the  days  of  Charles  II.  We 
are  all  acquainted  with  Charles  Lamb's  essay 
on  "  Old  China,"  where  he  expatiates  on  the 
corner-cupboard,  the  first  object  of  his  in- 
quiries, he  says,  whenever  he  visited  a  house 
in  the  country.  It  was  said  of  Horace  Wai- 
pole  :  "  China's  the  object  of  his  soul."  But 
it  would  be  much  more  surprising  to  find 
how  little  the  majority  of  its  devotees  really 
knew  about  it.  China-collecting,  however, 
is  a  fashion,  and,  like  all  other  fashions,  it 
has  been  carried  to  extremes.  China,  of  all 
the  various  species  of  crotchets,  has  perhaps 
been  the  most  widely  diffused,  because  the 
105 


Pottery  and 

surviving  remains  of  the  ceramic  art  are  so 
vast,  that  every  rural  hamlet  may  have  its 
share  of  perfectly  genuine  examples.  At  the 
same  time  the  number  of  really  fine  and 
desirable  objects,  either  in  porcelain  or  in 
earthenware,  is  comparatively  limited. 

Pottery  and  porcelain  have  a  very  wide 
and  a  very  deep  interest,  and  when  these 
two  principal  branches  of  the  manufacture 
are  properly  studied,  it  will  probably  be 
found  that  they  have  manifold  claims  on 
our  attention.  It  has  been  asserted  that  the 
productions  of  the  ceramic  art  "  more  per- 
fectly adapt  themselves  to  the  fashion  of 
thought,  to  the  fancies  and  ideas  of  each 
successive  generation  of  men,  than  those  of 
any  other  human  industry."  This  statement 
has  much  truth  in  it.  But  the  more  prized 
(because  the  more  rare)  productions  of  the 
ceramic  art  ought  to  be  regarded  as  anti- 
quities, which  is  distinctly  their  proper  cate- 
gory. An  antiquary  may  be  assumed  to 
know  the  particular  phase  of  past  history 
in  which  he  has  taken  a  special  interest,  and 
it  is  he  alone  who  understands  the  lessons 
and  can  best  appreciate  the  progress  and 
value  of  old  pottery  and  porcelain.  Pro- 
bably very  few  persons  who  engage  in  the 
pursuit  enjoy  the  opportunity  or  possess 
the  inclination  to  enter  into  it  with  any 
measure  of  thoughtful  study ;  and  in  the  eyes 
1 06 


Porcelain 

of  the  majority  of  those  who  gather  orna- 
mental objects  for  their  dwellings  or  cabinets, 
old  china  falls  loosely  under  the  categories  of 
being  pretty  or  ugly,  cheap  or  dear.  Of  the 
country  of  origin,  of  the  epoch  of  manu- 
facture, of  the  comparative  value  and  interest, 
the  average  man  knows  little  enough.  His 
information  is  confined  to  general  outlines. 
He  has  heard  of  Christie's,  of  old  blue,  of 
hard  and  soft  paste,  of  Wedgwood,  and  a 
few  other  letters  of  the  ceramic  alphabet. 
It  is  precisely  on  all  fours  with  books,  coins, 
and  pictures :  as  many  as  you  can  count 
on  your  fingers  are  judges,  and  the  rest 
dabble ;  while  the  critic,  who  prides  himself 
on  quickness  of  study,  is  often  found  re- 
ferring to  the  science  in  depreciatory  terms 
from  a  cursory  survey  of  the  specimens  in 
shop-windows  or  in  the  hands  of  a  friend. 

This  is  the  only  craze  taken  up,  or  at 
least  condoned,  by  ladies,  and  one's  natural 
gallantry  ought  perhaps  to  prevent  one  say- 
ing hard  things  about  it.  China-collecting 
among  women  at  one  time  denoted  unusual 
strength  of  mind  and  absence  of  nerves,  as  is 
shown  by  Pope's  lines  in  his  second  "Epistle" 
"  addressed  to  a  lady  "  : — 

"  Oh  !  blest  with  Temper,  whose  unclouded  ray 
Can  make  to-morrow  cheerful  as  to-day ; 
She,  who  can  love  a  Sister's  charms,  or  hear 
Sighs  for  a  daughter  with  unwounded  ear ; 
IO7 


Pottery  and 


She  who  ne'er  answers  till  a  Husband  cools, 
Or,  if  she  rules  him,  never  shows  she  rules, 
Charms  by  accepting,  by  submitting  sways, 
Yet  has  her  humour  most  when  she  obeys  ; 
Let  Fops  or  Fortune  fly  what  way  she  will, 
Disdains  all  loss  of  Tickets  or  Codille  : 
Spleen,  Vapours,  or  Small-pox,  above  them  all, 
And  mistress  of  herself  tho'  China  fall." 

Addison,  in  the  tenth  number  of  The 
Lover ^  has  touched  on  the  subject  of 
women's  passion  for  china  in  his  usual  ex- 
quisite humour.  "There  are  no  inclina- 
tions in  women,"  he  observes,  "  which  more 
surprise  me  than  their  passions  for  chalk 
and  china.  The  first  of  these  maladies  wears 
out  in  a  little  time;  but  when  a  woman  is 
visited  with  the  second,  it  generally  takes 
possession  of  her  for  life.  China-vessels  are 
playthings  for  women  of  all  ages.  An  old 
lady  of  fourscore  shall  be  as  busy  cleaning  an 
Indian  Mandarin  as  her  great-grand-daughter 
is  in  dressing  her  baby."  "  How  much  anger 
and  affliction  are  produced  daily  in  the  hearts 
of  my  dear  countrywomen  by  the  breach 
of  this  frail  furniture.  Some  of  them  pay 
half  their  servants'  wages  in  china  fragments, 
which  their  carelessness  has  produced."  Ad- 
dison quotes  a  dictum  of  Epictetus  apropos 
of  this  temper-trying  contingency :  "  If  thou 
hast  a  piece  of  earthenware,  consider  that  it 
is  a  piece  of  earthenware,  and  by  consequence 
very  easy  and  obnoxious  to  be  broken.  Be 
108 


Porcelain 

not,  therefore,  so  void  of  reason  as  to  be 
angry  or  grieved  when  this  comes  to  pass." 
Addison  concludes  a  very  delightful  paper 
with  the  reflection  that,  "did  our  women 
take  delight  in  heaping  up  piles  of  earthen 
platters,  brown  jugs,  and  the  like  useful 
products  of  our  British  potteries,  there  would* 
be  some  sense  in  it.  They  might  be  ranged 
as  fine  figures,  and  disposed  of  in  as  beauti- 
ful pieces  of  architecture;  but  there  is  an 
objection  to  these  which  cannot  be  overcome, 
namely,  that  they  would  be  of  some  use,  and 
might  be  taken  down  on  all  occasions  to  be 
employed  in  services  of  the  family ;  besides 
that  they  are  intolerably  cheap,  and  most 
shamefully  durable  and  lasting.'* 

During  the  last  forty  or  fifty  years  many 
very  extensive  collections  have  come  under 
the  hammer  at  Sotheby's  and  Christie's.  In 
the  Bernal  sale  of  1855,  one  day's  sale  of 
porcelain  brought  over  ^6133.  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's collection — perhaps  one  of  the  most 
representative  of  its  kind  as  illustrating  the 
history  of  the  ceramic  art — of  382  lots,  sold 
in  1875,  fetched  nearly  ^5000,  of  which  a 
handsome  percentage  represented  homage  to 
the  current  fame  and  standing  of  the  owner, 
as  the  property  was  very  indifferent.  This 
was  exemplified  by  the  Bohn  sale,  a  far 
larger  and  far  superior  one,  bringing,  a  year 
later,  only  about  ^8000.  In  1879  Lord 
109 


Pottery  and 

Lonsdale's  china  and  other  decorative  objects 
sold  for  over  ,£19,000,  and  in  the  same  year 
the  porcelain  of  Mr.  Charles  Dickins,  of 
Sunnyside,  Wimbledon,  sold  for  over  ^6000; 
in  1888,  the  majolica  of  Lord  Hastings  sold 
for  over  .£14,459.  But  the  highest  point 
was  reached  at  the  Dudley  sale  in  1886. 

We  may  regard  the  Chinese  (and  Japanese) 
pottery  and  porcelain  as  the  most  ancient. 
The  Orientals  themselves  fix  the  first  fabrica- 
tion of  the  potter's  art  to  a  period  of  about 
2700  years  before  the  Christian  era,  whilst 
the  invention  of  porcelain  is  quite  modern 
according  to  Chinese  chronologists.  The 
Emperors  of  China  appear  to  have  been 
great  patrons  of  ceramic  art.  Pottery  is  said 
to  have  been  invented  by  Hwang-ti,  who 
ascended  the  throne  in  2698  B.C.,  and 
Yu-ti-shun  made  pottery  before  succeeding 
to  imperial  dignities  in  2255  B.C.;  but  it  is 
not  certain  that  porcelain  was  known  before 
87  or  88  A.D.,  and  was  then  probably  only 
stoneware.  An  important  year  was  583  A.D., 
when  a  special  decree  ordered  the  potters  of 
the  district  now  known  as  King-te-chin  to 
make  porcelain  for  the  Emperor's  use.  The 
origin  of  blue  china  is  placed  at  between  the 
years  954  and  959,  and  it  is  said  that  the 
Emperor  Chin-tsung  being  asked  his  pleasure 
as  to  the  porcelain  articles  for  royal  use, 
replied,  "  In  future,  let  them  be  blue  as  the 
no 


Porcelain 

sky  that  one  sees  after  rain  between  the 
clouds."  For  these  and  other  appreciations 
of  the  art  during  subsequent  periods,  present 
enthusiastic  collectors  are  doubtless  grateful 
while  they  look  with  pride  upon  their  posses- 
sions. It  is  quite  certain  that  the  Orientals 
were  centuries  ahead  of  us  in  this  matter.  Of 
all  the  several  classes  of  porcelain  collected, 
old  Chinese  and  Japanese  enjoy  the  greatest 
share  of  popularity.  But  the  most  ancient 
examples  both  of  China  and  Japan  are  not 
the  most  attractive.  Their  chief  value  is 
that  they  form  an  interesting  chapter  in 
the  history  of  the  art,  and  when  that  has 
been  said,  not  very  much  else  can  be  urged 
in  their  favour. 

An  exceedingly  interesting  exhibition  of 
blue  and  white  porcelain  was  held  at  the 
Burlington  Fine  Arts  Club  in  February  last, 
when  many  choice  specimens  were  lent  by 
the  leading  collectors  of  this  country.  "  Blue 
and  white "  is  certainly  a  ware  which  can 
only  be  appreciated  through  acquaintance, 
and  that  that  appreciation  has  greatly  extended 
during  the  last  decade  or  two  is  proved  by 
the  fact  that  vases  which  might  have  been 
purchased  some  years, ago  for  a  few  sovereigns 
are  now  valued  at  nearly  a  thousand  pounds. 
Three  or  four  pieces  in  this  exhibition  which 
came  from  the  Burghley  House  collection 
are  believed  to  have  been  in  the  possession  of 
in 


Pottery  and 

the  family  from  the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth. 
They  were  lent  by  Mr.  Thomas  Agnew,  who 
insured  them  for  no  less  a  sum  than  ^3000. 
The  probability  is  that  it  was  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  that  the  finest  period  of  art 
and  fabric  was  reached  in  the  East. 

Some  astounding  prices  have  been  paid  at 
different  times  for  various  descriptions  of 
porcelain.  Among  the  many  objects  of  art 
collected  by  Lord  Revelstoke  and  sold  in 
1893  were  a  pair  of  octagonal  Mandarin 
vases  and  covers,  of  old  Chinese  porcelain, 
enamelled  with  flowers,  birds,  and  insects, 
four  feet  in  height,  which  sold  for  1000 
guineas ;  also  a  set  of  three  old  Japan  vases 
and  covers,  and  a  pair  of  beakers,  painted 
with  chrysanthemums,  other  flowers,  and 
buildings,  in  dark  blue  borders  (the  vases 
were  34  inches  high  and  the  beakers 
24  inches  high),  and  the  lot,  which 
last  year  realised  270  guineas,  had  been 
bought  from  Madame  de  Gruytens  of 
Antwerp,  whose  father  purchased  them  from 
the  family  of  Rubens.  At  the  Murietta 
sale,  three  and  a  half  years  ago,  a  pair  of 
old  Japan  jars,  richly  decorated  with  fruit, 
trees,  flowers,  &c.,  30  inches  high,  went  for 
230  guineas.  But  in  each  of  the  foregoing 
examples  the  purchaser  had  at  all  events 
something  for  his  money  so  far  as  regards 
size.  In  the  Field  sale  of  June  1893,  a  pair 

112 


Porcelain 

of  oviform  vases,  of  old  Chinese  lavender 
porcelain,  painted  with  bamboos  and  foliage, 
in  dark  blue  and  red,  1 3  inches  high,  realised 
the  preposterous  sum  of  590  guineas.  But 
for  foolishly  high  prices  one  has  to  go 
back  to  the  sale,  in  1880,  of  Dr.  E.  B. 
Shuldham's  collection  of  blue  and  white 
porcelain,  when  one  old  jar  was  knocked 
down  for  ^620,  and  another  at  ^650,  and 
in  neither  case  was  the  reserve  price  reached. 
In  April  1894  the  collection  of  Mr.  E.  O. 
Arbuthnot  of  Shanghai  was  sold  in  New 
York,  and  220  dollars  were  given  for  a  soft 
paste  semi-eggshell  pear-shaped  bottle,  22 
inches  high ;  a  set  of  four  peachblow  coupes 
— the  glazings  and  shadings  were  different 
in  each  piece,  and  the  set  represented  the 
varying  hues  of  the  ripening  peach,  each 
measured  4!  inches  by  i|  inch — realised  560 
dollars.  At  the  same  sale  a  Lang-yao  crackle 
vase,  i6|  inches  high,  sold  for  1290  dollars; 
and  a  long,  slender-necked  Hawthorn  bottle, 
of  which  only  two  others  of  the  kind  are 
known  to  exist,  fetched  620  dollars.  From 
these  prices  it  will  be  assumed  that  the  mania 
is  as  pronounced  in  America  as  it  is  here; 
but  if  any  further  proof  is  needed  here  are 
a  few  more  lessons  from  a  sale  held  in  the 
same  city  in  May  1894,  when  Captain 
Brinkley's  collection  came  under  the  ham- 
mer. A  large  vase  of  soft  paste,  of  light 
113  H 


Pottery  and 

buff  colour,  1 8  inches  high,  "over  900  years 
old,"  bought  in  Shanghai  by  the  collector, 
2400  dollars;  a  small  vase  of  Ting  Yao 
ware,  "  850  years  old,"  realised  525  dollars; 
a  vase  of  the  same  ware,  15!  inches  by  25^ 
inches  in  circumference,  deep  cherry-red 
colour,  with  white  shadings  on  one  side, 
1375  dollars;  a  blue  and  white  jar  of  the 
Hawthorn  pattern,  650  dollars;  a  pair  of 
plates,  440  dollars ;  a  vermilion  box,  4^ 
inches  wide,  300  dollars ;  whilst  a  I  y-inch 
vase,  whose  broken  neck  had  been  replaced 
by  a  silver  cap,  500  dollars.  A  collection 
of  1 5 1  lots  realised  a  total  of  22,000  dollars  \ 
Specimens  of  genuine  porcelain  were 
brought  to  England  early  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  and  they  then  realised  very  high 
prices.  The  examples  above  quoted  are 
probably  of  or  about  that  time.  Since  the 
sacking  of  the  Summer  Palace  at  Pekin  in 
1860,  and  the  opening  up  of  Japan  after  the 
troubles  of  1862,  the  exportation  to  this  and 
other  European  countries  has  been  enormous. 
Oriental  porcelain  consequently  has  become 
common;  but  the  genuine  ancient  ware  is 
more  valuable  than  ever,  and  is  easily  dis- 
tinguished from  that  which  is  imported  as  an 
article  of  merchandise  into  Europe.  The 
Orientals  themselves  do  not  make  any  longer 
such  pieces,  the  cost  of  the  material  being 
too  great,  and  they  are  even  prepared  to 
114 


Porcelain 

purchase  back  the  inimitable  productions  of 
their  ancestors,  who  bestowed  on  the  labour 
an  amount  of  time  and  outlay  no  longer  con- 
sistent with  commercial  ideas  or  possibilities. 
Next  to  Oriental  porcelain  in  historic  im- 
portance, but  far  before  it  in  general  cash 
value,  comes  old  Sevres.  And  here,  as  else- 
where, the  collector's  idiosyncrasies  outrun 
his  artistic  instincts.  The  occurrence  in  the 
market  of  a  specimen  of  the  soft  porcelain 
of  the  early  Sevres  period  is  quite  enough  to 
send  most  collectors  into  a  frenzy  of  excite- 
ment. It  realises  outrageous  prices.  It  is 
curious  to  reflect  that  a  century  and  a  quarter 
ago  true  china  was  unknown  at  Sevres,  so 
far  as  being  manufactured  there  was  con- 
cerned. Since  1769,  and  indeed  within  a 
very  few  years  of  that  period,  it  had  achieved 
a  world-wide  fame.  But  revolution  after 
revolution  in  France  took  place,  kings  came 
and  went,  before  examples  of  the  Sevres 
manufactory  commanded  fancy  figures.  The 
finest  period  is  about  1775,  and  the  two 
peculiarities  of  the  real  pdte  tendre  are  a 
certain  unctuous  surface  and  a  studied 
irregularity  in  the  decoration.  In  1874 
(July  12)  a  set  of  three  vases  of  the  rose 
du  Barri  Sevres,  consisting  of  a  centre- 
piece as  a  vaisseau  a  mat  and  two  eventail 
jardinieres,  belonging  to  the  Earl  of  Coven- 
try, and  modestly  styled  "  a  garniture 
"5 


Pottery  and 

de  cheminfo"  realised  the  record  price  of 
;£  1 0,500.  They  were  bought  by  the  Earl 
of  Dudley,  who,  a  short  time  afterwards, 
paid  ^6825  for  a  pair  of  vases  with  open- 
work covers  and  stands  of  gros-bleu^  green, 
and  rose,  of  rare  form,  painted  with  rose  du 
Barri  foliage  and  Chinese  figures.  This 
pair  of  vases  measured  n£  inches  in  height. 
The  garniture  de  chemine'e  is  unquestion- 
ably one  of  the  greatest  triumphs  of  Sevres 
work,  and  its  history  may  be  here  told,  in- 
asmuch as  it  appeared  at  Christie's  again  so 
recently  as  July  of  the  present  year.  The 
set  is  known  as  the  "  Coventry  Vases,"  and 
these  unique  specimens  of  ceramic  art  were 
made  in  1759.  They  were  presented  by 
Louis  XV.  to  George  William,  sixth  Earl 
of  Coventry,  who  married  in  1752  one  of 
the  beautiful  Miss  Gunnings.  The  centre- 
piece, which  is  modelled  to  represent  the 
arms  of  the  city  of  Paris,  is  14!  inches  high, 
whilst  the  two  jardinieres  are  8|  inches  high. 
The  rose  du  Barri  ground  is  combined 
with  green,  and  is  a  perfect  example  of 
this  scarce  combination ;  the  paintings  are 
admirably  copied  from  Teniers'  well-known 
subjects,  with  groups  of  exquisitely  painted 
flowers,  by  Morin,  in  the  reverse.  This  set 
passed  from  Earl  Dudley's  possession  into 
that  of  the  late  W.  J.  Goode,  at  10,000 
guineas.  Mr.  Goode's  object  in  paying  so 
116 


Porcelain 

high  a  price  for  this  set  was  purely  a  com- 
mercial one,  to  see,  in  fact,  how  closely  they 
could  be  copied  at  his  potteries.  It  is 
interesting  to  point  out  that  the  two  copies 
which  he  made  are  as  like  the  original  as 
the  proverbial  "two  peas  in  a  pod."  These 
copies,  of  which  one  only  is  taken  up,  are 
priced  at  ^300  each,  or  about  the  actual  cost 
involved  in  reproduction.  The  original  set 
was,  as  we  have  said,  offered  at  Christie's 
in  July  last,  but  was  bought  in  at  8000 
guineas. 

The  two  gros-bleu  vases,  for  which  Lord 
Dudley  paid  ^6825,  were  bought  in  at 
the  Dudley  sale  in  1886,  the  highest  offer 
being  ^"2625. 

Again,  a  set  of  three  eventail  jardinieres  of 
the  largest  model,  green  ground,  painted  with 
birds  and  flowers,  by  Alonde,  which  sold 
in  Lord  Dudley's  sale  in  1886  for  1668 
guineas — they  cost  him  ^1995 — dropped 
to  1470  guineas  when  they  appeared  in 
Lord  Revelstoke's  sale  in  1893,  where  also 
a  rose  du  Barri  jardiniere  of  the  largest 
model,  with  white  and  gold  scroll  handles,  sold 
for  1050  guineas ;  a  pair  of  green  eventail 
jardinieres,  each  painted  with  tropical  birds 
and  flowers  on  white  ground,  went  for  480 
guineas,  and  a  pair  of  rose  du  Barri  square 
jardinieres  6£  inches  high,  fetched  210 
guineas  !  Among  the  Cassiobury  Park  trea- 
sures, collected  in  France  soon  after  the 
117 


Pottery  and 

great  French  Revolution  by  the  fifth  Earl 
of  Essex,  and  sold  last  year,  an  oviform  vase 
and  cover  on  gros-bleu  ground,  and  painted 
with  a  seaport  and  marine  trophy  in  colours 
in  medallions  by  Morin,  15  inches  high, 
realised  the  extraordinary  sum  of  1900 
guineas ;  a  garniture  of  five  sea-green  vases, 
with  birds  and  plants  in  dark  blue  and 
colours,  each  about  14!  inches  high,  realised 
1400  guineas,  and  many  other  items  sold 
for  equally  extravagant  amounts.  At  the 
Hodgson  sale  at  Christie's  in  1893,  among 
the  old  Sevres  were  sixty-six  white  plates 
with  blue  lines  and  gilt  edges ;  these  plates 
realised  over  three  guineas  apiece.  Even  as  far 
back  as  1855  certain  examples  of  old  Sevres 
ran  well  into  three  figures,  for  at  the  dis- 
persion of  the  Bernal  collection  in  that  year 
a  pair  of  rose  du  Barri  vases,  14!  inches 
high,  with  plinths,  sold  for  ^1492,  ios.,  and 
a  pair  of  vases,  turquoise,  for  ^"1417,  ios., 
the  purchaser  in  each  case  being  Lord  Hert- 
ford. But  probably  never  before  and  only 
once  since  did  Sevres  porcelain  realise  such 
absurd  prices  as  at  the  Hamilton  Palace 
sale  in  1882;  collectors  were  carried  away 
by  the  great  fame  of  this  extraordinary 
collection.  We  have  only  room  to  mention 
two  illustrative  examples  :  a  vase  and  cover, 
turquoise  ground,  with  white  and  gold  bands 
and  festoons  of  foliage,  13^  inches  high, 
^1585,  and  an  oval  plateau,  gros-bleu  fes- 
118 


Porcelain 

toons  and  medallions,  imitating  moss  agate, 
n|  inches  by  8|,  ,£430.  An  interesting 
item  in  Sevres  occurred  in  the  collection  of 
Dr.  Patrick  Sinclair  Laing,  sold  at  Sotheby's 
in  February  1893  :  a  pair  of  vases  and 
covers  of  rich  bleu  ground,  painted  with 
portraits  of  the  Empress  Catherine  of  Russia, 
and  interlaced  letters  forming  monograms  of 
the  King  of  France  and  the  Empress,  with 
crowns  in  gold  above;  this  lot  sold  for  ^99. 
Next  to  the  Sevres,  of  which  the  modern 
specimens  are  not  sought,  probably  Dresden 
porcelain  is  the  most  in  favour  with  collectors. 
One  of  the  most  extensive  collections  which 
has  come  under  the  hammer  in  this  country 
was  that  of  the  Due  de  Forli,  a  Neapolitan 
gentleman,  sold  at  Christie's  in  1877,  realis- 
ing a  total  of  over  ^"4221.  An  "e"cuelle" 
in  Mayflower,  painted  with  Watteau  figures 
and  the  arms  of  the  Dauphin,  realised  300 
guineas !  A  little  lady  in  a  hooped  petti- 
coat and  her  two  pet  pugs  realised  £1 1 5 ; 
whilst  a  pair  of  small  candlesticks  sold  for 
100  guineas;  a  pair  of  bulls  attacked  by 
dogs,  6|  inches  high,  for  ^195  ;  an  inkstand 
formed  as  a  galley,  with  a  seated  figure  in  the 
stern,  ^94,  IDS.  ;  a  coffee-pot,  100  guineas. 
At  Christie's  in  March  1894  an  old  Dresden 
service  of  163  pieces,  each  painted  with 
different  views  in  Holland  in  the  centre,  with 
red  and  gold  scroll  borders,  was  sold  in  28 
119 


Pottery  and 

lots,  and  realised  the  respectable  total  of 
^333,  i os.  6d.  This  service  was  formerly 
the  property  of  a  King  of  Holland,  sub- 
sequently passing  into  William  Beckford's 
famous  collection.  An  old  Dresden  service, 
consisting  of  seventy  pieces,  was  sold  at  the 
Hodgson  sale  in  July  1893  for  370  guineas ; 
but  one  of  the  highest  prices  of  late  years 
was  paid  at  the  Field  sale  of  June  1893, 
when  a  pair  of  oviform  vases  and  covers 
of  old  Dresden,  each  painted  with  garden 
scenes  and  figures  in  two  medallions  on 
white  ground,  with  forget-me-nots  in  relief, 
14  inches  high,  realised  ^945. 

Struck  by  the  beauty  of  the  work  of  the 
Moorish  potters  in  Spain,  the  Italians  first 
imitated  and  then  far  excelled  their  neigh- 
bours. At  Gubbio,  for  example,  the  method 
of  imparting  the  very  beautiful  and  unique 
ruby  lustre  to  pottery  was  invented,  but  it 
never  extended  beyond  that  town  and  Urbino, 
and  the  art  is  now  lost.  The  majolica  ware 
of  both  these  places  has  much  to  commend 
it,  and  good  examples  fetch  very  high  figures. 
Probably  the  most  extensive  collection  of 
Urbino  and  Gubbio  ware  sold  during  the 
last  few  years  occurred  in  the  Spitzer  sale 
two  years  since.  A  Gubbio  plate  with  paint- 
ings by  Giorgio  Andreoli,  1524,  16  inches 
in  diameter,  realised  over  ^1000;  another 
similar  example,  1525,  n  inches  in  diameter, 
1 20 


Porcelain 

sold  for  about  ^250;  a  cup  of  the  same 
ware,  1536,  8  inches  in  diameter,  realised 
200  guineas,  but  a  second  cup  of  Gubbio, 
1595,  not  10  inches  in  diameter,  sold  for 
close  on  ^700 ;  i  a  small  plate,  rather  over 
9  inches  in  diameter,  realised  over  ^250. 
These  articles  fetch  more  in  Paris  than  they 
probably  would  in  this  country. 

In  the  sale  of  the  effects  of  the  late  E. 
Joseph,  of  Bond  Street,  in  February  1894, 
several  very  good  examples  of  the  Urbino 
ware  came  under  the  hammer :  an  oviform 
ewer,  the  handle  formed  as  a  grotesque  male 
figure,  I2f  inches  high,  realised  195  guineas, 
and  an  oviform  vase,  with  upright  twisted 
serpent  handles,  24  inches  high,  sold  for 
191  guineas. 

At  the  Spitzer  sale,  however,  the  prices 
paid  were  almost  fabulous :  a  pair  of  vases, 
II  inches  high,  realised  about  ^1300;  a 
cup,  10  inches  in  diameter,  1538,  went  for 
.£280;  whilst  a  plate,  9!  inches  by  20 
inches,  brought  over  ^"500,  and  a  basin,  18 
inches  in  diameter,  ^250.  The  highest  price 
for-a  single  piece  was  paid  for  a  plate  20 
inches  in  diameter,  which  realised  close  on 
^"1300.  The  Hispano-Moresque  ware,  the 
most  splendid  and  beautiful  example  of 
which  is  probably  the  celebrated  vase  at  the 
Alhambra,  does  not,  as  a  rule,  realise  such 
high  prices  as  the  examples  of  Italian 

121 


Pottery  and 

majolica  just  quoted,  but  a  plate  of  the 
best  period  fetches  ^200.  Examples  of 
the  Caffagiolo  ware  of  the  fifteenth  century 
realise  very  high  prices  sometimes,  as  in  the 
Spitzer  sale,  when  four  plates,  from  13 
inches  to  17  inches  in  diameter,  realised  a 
total  of  about  ^6600 !  Genuine  examples 
of  the  royal  porcelain  works  established  by 
Charles  III.  of  Naples  at  Capo  di  Monte 
are  exceedingly  pretty,  and  realise  very  high 
figures.  Among  Mr.  Gladstone's  collection 
of  china  sold  in  1875,  four  Capo  di  Monte 
groups  of  the  quarters  of  the  globe  realised 
^115;  but  in  the  Joy  collection  sold  three 
years  ago  at  Sotheby's,  a  cup  and  saucer  of  this 
ware,  formerly  in  the  Bernal  collection,  sold 
for  ;£8,  I2s.,  and  a  milk-jug  and  teapot — 
the  latter  having  a  view  of  Puteoli  on  a  canary 
ground — realised  only  £6.  These  pieces  are 
copied  from  the  Buen  Retire  china,  but  are 
almost  opaque,  instead  of  being  unusually 
transparent  like  the  originals.  The  Capo  di 
Monte  work  in  relief  is  best  known  from  the 
common  reproductions,  the  moulds  being  in 
existence,  but  the  old  pieces  are  easily  dis- 
tinguished. The  productions  of  the  ordinary 
Spanish  type  are  the  earlier,  and  are  by  far  the 
rarer ;  they  are  sometimes  sold  as  Buen  Retire. 
The  "  Henri  Deux "  ware  was  manufac- 
tured between  the  years  1540  and  1560, 
probably  in  Touraine.  Its  existence  was 

122 


Porcelain 

quite  forgotten  until  1839,  when  M.  Andre 
Pettier  first  announced  it  to  the  world. 
When  one  piece  had  been  discovered  others 
naturally  turned  up,  but  only  about  fifty 
examples  have  been  found,  and  of  these  the 
majority  are  in  England.  This  pottery  is 
regarded  by  those  who  have  educated  them- 
selves up  to  it  as  of  exquisite  decorative 
quality  and  design,  but  to  the  lay  mind  its 
thin,  yellowish-green  appearance,  with  its 
"  surface  seemingly  inlaid  and  encrusted  with 
the  innumerable  details  of  elaborate  orna- 
mentation, made  out  in  quiet  browns,  blacks, 
and  sad  neutral  tints,"  is  about  as  unlovely 
and  inartistic  as  anything  could  well  be. 
But  it  is  impossible  to  deny  that  from  a 
technical  point  of  view  it  is  of  great  interest, 
inasmuch  as  its  fabrication  displays  novelties 
of  a  varied  character,  into  which  we  need  not 
enter;  it  is  the  work  of  an  original  artist, 
with  whom  the  secret  was  born  and  with 
whom  it  died.  The  finest  example  of  this 
ware  yet  known,  a  ewer  or  aiguiere,  was 
purchased  at  the  sale  of  M.  Odiot,  a  silver- 
smith and  well-known  collector  of  Paris,  in 
1842.  It  is  beautifully  engraved  in  Shaw's 
"  Decorative  Arts  of  the  Middle  Ages,"  and 
for  a  second  time  came  up  for  sale  among 
the  renowned  collection  of  works  of  art 
formed  by  the  late  Hollingworth  Magniac, 
and  dispersed  at  Christie's  in  July  1892. 

123 
I 


Pottery  and 

Its  extreme  height  to  top  of  handle  is  14! 
inches,  and  the  greatest  diameter  of  the 
oviform  body  is  5!  inches.  It  was  knocked 
down  for  the  extraordinary  sum  of  ,£3990  ! 
Two  very  characteristic  examples  of  this 
faience,  a  tazza  and  a  salt-cellar,  were  pur- 
chased by  the  Duke  of  Hamilton  in  1859 
f°r  ,£360.  At  his  sale  in  1882  they  realised 
1960  guineas.  Three  pieces  occurred  in 
the  Fountaine  collection  sold  at  Christie's 
in  1884,  and  of  these  a  flambeau  realised 
^3675,  the  purchaser  being  a  Frenchman, 
and  a  mortier  a  cire,  which  sold  for  ^1575. 
Of  porcelain  made  in  England,  the  Chel- 
sea, the  Bow,  the  Bristol,  the  Worcester,  and 
the  Derby  are  probably  the  best  known  and 
the  most  admired,  or  at  least  appreciated.  In 
the  British  Museum  there  is  a  pair  of  Chelsea 
vases  of  the  largest  size,  deep  blue  ground, 
painted  with  exotic  birds,  formerly  the  pro- 
perty of  Sir  Hans  Sloane.  At  Lord  Dudley's 
sale  in  1886,  two  pairs  of  oviform  vases  and 
covers  of  old  Chelsea  ware,  of  extraordinary 
size,  deep  blue  ground,  24  inches  high,  were 
knocked  down  at  2000  guineas  per  pair — 
but  neither,  it  is  believed,  was  really  sold.  A 
single  vase  of  the  same  ware,  painted  in  six 
medallions,  17  inches  high,  realised  ^946, 
whilst  a  pair  of  vases,  covered  with  Watteau 
subjects  in  deep  blue  borders,  1 6  inches  high, 
sold  for  ^"1071.  In  another  collection 
124 


Porcelain 

recently  sold,  an  old  Chelsea  tea  service, 
painted  with  exotic  birds  and  deep  blue 
bands,  brought  nearly  ^900 — the  milk-jug 
alone  selling  for  ^"71,  8s.,  or  five  times  its 
weight  in  gold — whilst  the  cups  and  saucers, 
sold  in  pairs,  varied  from  40  guineas  to  60 
guineas  per  pair.  After  such  figures  it  is 
almost  absurd  to  refer  to  a  pair  of  dark  blue 
bottles  of  old  Chelsea,  9^  inches,  which  real- 
ised 95  guineas  in  April  1894  at  Christie's. 
Some  extremely  fine  groups  of  Chelsea  por- 
celain were  formerly  in  the  hands  of  Mr. 
Sanders  of  Chiswick  ;  and  at  Holland  House 
is  the  tea  service  presented  by  the  factory  to 
Dr.  Johnson.  It  should  be  stated  that  there 
are  of  Chelsea  two  distinct  epochs,  of  which 
the  later  is  the  finer,  probably  from  the 
proprietors  having  then  taken  Italian  artists 
into  their  employment ;  and  the  mark  itself, 
an  anchor,  was  borrowed  from  Venice. 

Some  well-known  specimens  of  Bristol 
china  were  included  in  the  Joy  collection 
sold  at  Sotheby's  three  years  ago,  when  a 
teacup  and  saucer  of  the  celebrated  service 
made  by  Champion  in  1774,  and  presented  to 
Mrs.  Burke,  realised  £60 ;  whilst  a  cup  and 
saucer  made  by  Champion,  at  the  request 
of  Edmund  Burke,  for  presentation  to  the 
latter's  hostess,  sold  for  ^24.  The  Edkins 
sale  at  Sotheby's  yielded  the  finest  collection 
of  this  class  ever  brought  together.  The 
125 


Tottery  and  Porcelain 

products  of  Bow  have  become  more  nume- 
rous as  time  elapses,  and  some  very  fine 
examples  not  unworthy  of  Chelsea  are  known. 
The  mark  usually  found  is  a  dagger  and  an 
anchor,  but  many  specimens  are  unsigned. 
One  of  the  "  triumphs  "  of  that  pottery,  an 
inkstand,  painted  with  daisy  pattern,  1750, 
sold  in  1892  for  £11. 

The  best  examples  of  Worcester  and 
Derby  are  fully  comparable  with  Chelsea. 
At  Viscount  Clifden's  sale,  on  7th  May 
1893,  a  set  of  three  old  Worcester  vases, 
about  14  inches  high,  each  painted  with  two 
large  medallions  on  dark  blue  ground,  sold 
for  ^336.  In  the  same  month  also  the  cele- 
brated dinner  service  of  old  Worcester  por- 
celain (consisting  of  upwards  of  260  pieces) 
presented  by  the  British  nation  to  Lord 
Nelson,  was  sold  by  order  of  the  then  owner, 
the  Earl  of  Erroll.  This  service  was  divided 
into  62  lots,  and  realised  a  total  of  over 
^1154.  Each  piece  is  painted  with  a  por- 
trait of  Lady  Hamilton,  as  "  Hope,"  in 
varied  attitudes  on  the  seashore.  In  such  a 
case  as  this,  the  value  is  in  a  great  measure  a 
sentimental  one.  It  is  a  sufficiently  familiar 
fact  that  the  Chelsea  factory  merged  in  that 
at  Derby,  and  that  the  earliest  work  bears  a 
D  charged  with  an  anchor.  Of  the  Wor- 
cester china  we  have  three  important  epochs  : 
the  Wall,  the  Chamberlain,  and  the  Flight. 
126 


Postage  Stamps 


IN  the  autumn  of  1862  appeared  at  Brighton, 
from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Frederick  Booty,  or 
rather  from  that  gentleman's  hand,  for  he 
was  the  artist  likewise,  a  small  octavo  volume 
of  forty-six  leaves,  of  which  the  reverses  are 
blank,  and  which  is  entirely  lithographic, 
entitled,  "  The  Stamp  Collector's  Guide  : 
Being  a  List  of  English  and  Foreign  Postage 
|  Stamps,  with  200  Facsimile  Drawings,  by  Fre- 
derick Booty."  This  is  a  book  in  comparison 
with  which  Caxtons  are  common,  and  which 
enjoys,  we  think,  the  proud  advantage  of  being 
till  this  very  instant  unknown  to  bibliogra- 
phers. It  looks  as  if  it  might  have  been  origi- 
nally offered  at  sixpence  ;  its  present  value  is 
about  ;£iooo,  to  borrow  the  phraseology  of 
the  Philatelic  Vendor,  and  the  price  is  some- 
what enhanced  by  an  indifference  to  ortho- 
graphy, punctuation,  and  artistic  refinement. 
All  these  characteristics  appertain  to  the  true 
editio  princepS)  and  establish  its  authenticity. 
Now  Mr.  Booty,  in  an  introduction, 
which,  by  the  way,  occupies  both  sides  of  the 
129  i 


Postage  Stamps 

two  leaves  on  which  it  is  contained,  oppor- 
tunely tells  us  at  the  very  commencement 
that  whereas  collectors  in  this  line  were  (then) 
a  short  time  since  numbered  by  units,  they 
had  so  increased  in  1862  as  to  be  countable 
by  hundreds ;  he  does  not  see  why  even  the 
more  unlovely  of  postage-stamps  should  not 
possess  a  latent  beauty  (mark  the  happy 
expression  !) ;  yet  he  does  not  wish  us  to 
regard  too  exclusively  the  aesthetic  side,  for, 
as  he  says,  the  pursuit  has  its  usilitarian  (sic} 
one.  Mr.  Booty  himself  owed  his  know- 
ledge of  Queensland  to  its  blue  twopenny, 
besides  a  great  deal  more,  and  assures  Dr. 
Browne,  a  coeval  teacher  of  youth,  that  he 
is  not  the  only  person  who  had  benefited  by 
the  new  science,  as  it  was  at  that  date. 

But  in  1862  it  is  evident  that  stamp-col- 
lecting was  chiefly,  if  not  almost  exclusively, 
a  passion  among  schoolboys  and  schoolgirls  ; 
and  when  we  think  upon  it  a  little,  it  was 
a  period  of  European  and  Colonial  history 
when  many  vital  changes  had  occurred,  or 
were  occurring,  in  the  political  constitutions 
of  States.  The  system  of  Postage  had  of 
course  been  long  established,  and  prior  to 
the  Booty  Hegira  there  had  been  ample  time 
for  numberless  revolutions  in  Governments 
at  home  and  abroad,  and  for  consequent  phe- 
nomena in  the  shape  of  new  stamps.  It 
would  perhaps  hardly  be  accurate  to  say 
130 


Postage  Stamps 

that  in  the  eyes  of  the  Philatelic  Vendor 
Great  Britain  holds  the  lowest  rank,  but 
certainly,  owing  to  the  deplorable  perma- 
nence and  stability  of  Her  Majesty's  Govern- 
ment, and  the  unreasonable  longevity  of  the 
Queen,  the  rarities  in  the  series  seem  hardly 
worth  mentioning.  Our  poor  country  may 
well  blush  when  it  looks  at  the  prices  which 
the  Philatelic  Vendor  declares  himself  ready 
to  pay  for  the  products  of  Hawaii,  or 
some  decently  behaved  Government  which 
existed  only  long  enough  to  issue  six  phila- 
telic examples,  of  which  three  are  more  or 
less  imperfect,  or  variants  of  unsurpassed 
curiosity  and  incalculable  worth.  If  they 
resemble  a  defective  post-mark  impressed 
on  a  piece  of  blotting-paper,  what  of  that  ? 
If  the  execution  is  criticised  by  the  youngest 
member  of  your  household  as  inferior  to  his 
own  capabilities,  do  not  be  discouraged  ;  give 
the  Philatelic  Vendor  his  thousand  sovereigns, 
and  thank  him. 

To  return,  however,  to  the  presumed 
genesis  of  the  thing,  we  seem  to  perceive 
that  in  1862  a  large  accumulation  of  postage- 
stamps  existed  up  and  down,  belonging  to 
several  living  Governments,  and,  which  is 
much  more,  to  a  considerable  number  of 
defunct  ones;  and  besides,  at  that  juncture 
constant  modifications  were  occurring,  some- 
times from  year  to  year,  in  parts  of  Europe, 


Postage  Stamps 

South  America,  the  West  Indies,  Australasia, 
Polynesia,  and  elsewhere.  The  pursuit  was 
mainly  limited  to  youngsters,  Mr.  Booty 
informs  his  readers,  and  it  is  easy  to  imagine 
the  havoc  which  was  always  going  on  where 
the  market  value  was  low  and  the  customer 
careless  and  inexperienced  ;  just  as  when  early 
printed  books  were  very  cheap,  it  was  almost 
an  economy  to  light  your  kitchen-fire  with 
them. 

So  it  happened,  we  humbly  conceive,  that 
about  the  Booty  era  the  increasing  stir  and 
talk  in  the  family  circle  about  stamps  caught 
the  ear  of  papa,  and  papa  thought  to  himself, 
"  Why  should  not  I  go  and  do  likewise  ?  " 
A  schoolboy  once  received  a  gift  from  his 
uncle  of  a  handful  of  worthless  old  coins  in 
a  canvas  bag  ;  he  knew  nothing  about  such 
matters,  nor  cared;  but  his  father  cast  his 
eyes  upon  the  poor  little  hoard,  and  was 
struck  by  the  interest  in  the  subject,  even 
there  nebulously  perceptible.  It  is  true  that 
he  threw  the  contents  of  the  bag  away,  but 
the  accident  led  to  the  formation  of  not 
the  least  important  numismatic  collection  in 
Europe.  We  merely  relate  this  anecdote 
because  it  has  the  air  of  a  parallel.  The 
philatelic  furor,  as  it  became,  spread  from 
the  sons  and  daughters  of  England  to  her 
richer,  if  not  wiser,  sires ;  and  as  we  write, 
there  is,  relatively  speaking,  no  class  of  com- 
132 


Postage  Stamps 

modity  which  is  so  eagerly  sought,  for  which 
such  ambitious  prices  are  demanded  and  given, 
and  in  which  the  opportunities  of  obtaining 
that  gratification  on  both  sides  which  is 
so  well  described  in  the  lines  of  Butler's 
Hudibras — 

"  For  sure  the  pleasure  is  as  great 
Of  being  cheated  as  to  cheat," 

are  so  frequent  and  so  unfailing. 

There  are  at  least  two  thousand  stamp 
dealers  in  Europe,  and  the  number  of  people 
who  make  a  living  directly  out  of  this  calling 
is  estimated  at  five  figures.  In  London  last 
season  from  ,£15,000  to  ,£20,000  worth  of 
stamps  were  sold  under  the  hammer  by  three 
or  four  auctioneers.  One  dealer  retired  after 
having  accumulated,  it  is  said,  the  very  re- 
spectable fortune  of  ,£50,000.  The  "  trade  " 
in  London  is  represented  by  nearly  a  dozen 
journals,  and  its  literature  could  only  be  in- 
dicated by  a  portly  volume  of  bibliography. 
The  composition  of  the  Philatelic  Society 
of  London  is  interesting,  for  among  its 
members  are  many  eminent  and  distinguished 
men  (to  say  nothing  of  four  ladies)  whom 
the  general  public  would  little  suspect  of  a 
weakness  for  such  unconsidered  trifles.  The 
President  and  Vice-President  respectively  are 
the  Duke  of  Saxe-Coburg-Gotha  and  the 
Duke  of  York.  Its  list  of  ordinary  members 

133 


Postage  Stamps 

includes  one  prince,  two  earls,  a  whole  host 
of  military  and  naval  officers,  and  the  re- 
mainder is  chiefly  made  up  of  Esquires. 
In  the  autumn  of  1892,  Mr.  Castle,  editor 
of  The  London  Philatelist  (the  official  organ 
of  the  Society),  issued  to  1 1 6  members  of  the 
Society  residing  in  Great  Britain  a  series  of 
queries  concerning  their  particular  collections, 
and  from  the  tabulated  replies  we  glean  that 
the  stamps  in  the  possession  of  the  109  who 
replied  to  the  circular  amounted  to  over 
825,000.  The  value  of  one  collection  was 
placed  at  ;£  10,000,  a  second  at  £6000,  two 
a*  ^5000,  two  at  ^"4000,  eight  at  amounts 
varying  from  ^1200  to  ^3000  each,  and 
ten  at  £1000  each.  The  estimated  value 
of  the  collections  of  ordinary  members  of 
the  Society  resident  out  of  Great  Britain  is 
placed  at  ,£100,000,  to  which  we  have  to 
add  several  of  the  largest  holders,  and  notably 
that  of  Herr  Philip  von  Ferrary  of  Paris, 
which  has  been  computed  as  alone  worth  as 
much  as  the  sum  just  mentioned.  These 
figures  do  not  take  any  account  of  the  stocks 
of  dealers,  who  are  stated  to  be  ineligible  to 
the  Society.  It  will  be  at  once  seen  that  to  be 
a  stamp  collector  on  a  dignified  scale  a  man 
must  be  rich. 

The  Ferrary  collection  is  in  a  way  unique. 
This  gentleman  purchases  at  any  price,  we 
hear,  examples  of  which  he  has  no  specimens, 
134 


Postage  Stamps 

and  has  had  for  years  two  specialists  devoted  to 
the  custodianship  of  his  collection,  at  salaries 
of  ^400  a  year.  Another  Parisian  collector 
is  said  to  possess  over  a  million  stamps  pre- 
served in  a  hundred  and  thirty  richly  bound 
volumes.  The  Tapling  collection,  valued  at 
;£6o,ooo,  and  now  in  the  British  Museum, 
is  supposed  to  rank  second  to  that  of  Herr 
von  Ferrary.  The  late  Czar  of  Russia  had  a 
very  fine  collection,  valued  at  about  ,£30,000, 
and  took  a  very  personal  interest  in  his  stamps, 
particularly  those  of  Asiatic  issue.  The 
Prince  of  Wales,  as  well  as  his  brother  and 
son  already  named,  has  a  good  collection. 
Her  Majesty  also  has  a  good  collection,  one 
of  the  greatest  rarities  of  which  is  an  example 
of  the  first  Garfield  issue  of  the  United 
States ;  and  the  Prince  of  Wales  adds  him- 
self to  the  roll  in  a  measure,  but  not  so  as 
to  be  viewed  by  Philatelic  Vendor  aforesaid 
as  a  grandee  of  the  first  class. 

Stamp  collecting  is  supposed  to  have  origin- 
ated in  Belgium,  and  to  have  quickly  spread 
to  Germany  and  France,  in  the  latter  of  which, 
not  unnaturally,  it  developed  almost  into  a 
public  scandal.  The  infection  appears  to 
have  soon  found  its  way  into  England,  and 
early  in  1862  an  informal  kind  of  Exchange 
had  established  itself  in  Birchin  Lane,  London, 
which  became  such  an  unmitigated  nuisance, 
that  it  was  put  down  by  the  police,  as  a 

'35 


Postage  Stamps 

similar  institution  on  the  Boulevard  Sebas- 
topol  had  been  suppressed  by  the  Parisian 
authorities.  Between  1840,  when  stamps 
were  first  issued,  and  1860  two  thousand 
four  hundred  examples  of  various  kinds 
had  appeared;  by  1870  that  number  had 
increased  to  six  thousand  four  hundred. 
The  earliest  systematic  "  Handbook  "  of  the 
subject,  closely  following  on  the  Booty  mono- 
graph, was  by  Dr.  J.  E.  Gray  of  the  British 
Museum  ;  the  first  edition  of  a  thousand 
copies  of  this  little  book  of  fifty-four  pages 
was  sold  out  in  twenty  days,  and  five  sub- 
sequent editions  (the  fifth  extended  to  two 
hundred  and  twenty-six  pages)  appeared  in 
rapid  succession.  On  ist  April  1863 — a 
somewhat  unfortunate  date — a  Stamp  Col- 
lector s  Magazine  appeared,  and  existed  for 
twelve  years.  The  movement  scored  another 
advance  on  i8th  March  1872,  on  which 
date  the  first  stamp  auction  was  held  at  13 
Wellington  Street,  Strand,  when  the  cream 
of  the  stock  of  J.  W.  Scott  &  Co.  came 
under  the  hammer,  and  realised  a  total  of 
^258,  the  two  highest  individual  figures 
being  £6  for  a  St.  Louis  20  cent,  and 
;£8,  I2s.  for  a  variety  of  the  same.  This 
may  be  the  fittest  place  for  adding  that  since 
that  time  several  auctioneers  have  instituted 
periodical  night  sales  devoted  to  the  same 
object. 

136 


Postage  Stamps 

The  day  for  forming  a  complete  collection 
of  stamps  is  passing  away.  Nearly  every 
collector  is  now  primarily  a  specialist,  but  the 
majority  keep  a  more  or  less  wary  eye  open 
to  completing  their  collections  so  far  as  it 
remains  possible.  Most  collectors  restrict 
themselves  to  their  own  country ;  in  England 
the  demand  is  greatest  for  the  stamps  of 
Great  Britain  and  its  Colonies  ;  in  America 
the  United  States  stamps  are  most  in  request, 
and  realise  consequently  better  prices  there 
than  elsewhere.  Beyond  this  general  rule, 
fashions  in  stamps  vary  as  often  and  as  rapidly 
as  fashions  in  other  things.  The  other  day 
the  rage  was  for  the  postage  stamps  of 
Australia;  now  old  and  scarce  Europeans, 
especially  unused,  and  early  Colonials,  par- 
ticularly those  of  the  West  Indian  Islands, 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  Mauritius,  are 
the  -mode.  One  or  two  eminent  collectors 
take  up  a  particular  line,  and  the  others 
follow.  Fashion  has  to  be  complied  with  in 
all  matters.  Then,  again,  certain  collectors 
devote  their  energies  to  the  juxtaposition  of 
the  various  shades  of  particular  issues,  the  gra- 
dations, for  instance,  from  light  red  to  dark 
red — and  these  variations  sometimes  number 
half-a-dozen  in  one  issue.  That  such  differ- 
ences merely  arise  from  accidents  in  the  print- 
ing processes  or  from  chemical  agencies,  is 
perfectly  immaterial.  When  stamp  collect- 

137 


Postage  Stamps 

ing  narrows  itself  down  to  this  species  of 
hair-splitting,  it  unquestionably  becomes  a 
mania,  as  it  does  when  it  comes  to  mea- 
suring the  margins  and  counting  the  per- 
forations. A  different  perforation  or  the 
fraction  of  an  inch  more  margin  may  vastly 
enhance  the  value  of  a  stamp.  One  can 
sympathise  with  the  very  natural  desire 
for  a  complete  and  perfect  stamp,  just  as 
one  prefers  a  perfect  to  an  imperfect  book, 
but  when  it  becomes  necessary  to  provide 
one's  self  with  a  "  stamp  measure,"  which 
splits  an  inch  up  into  twenty-five  sections, 
or  with  a  "  perforation  gauge,"  the  sublimity 
of  the  philatelic  craze  seems  to  verge  upon 
the  ridiculous.  With  all  these  bewildering 
contingencies  and  side  issues,  the  edifying 
hobby  of  the  schoolboy  receives  a  fatal  blow. 
The  man  who  pays  ^50  or  ^100  for  a  stamp 
may  have  the  satisfaction  of  possessing  some- 
thing for  which  he  has  been  looking  for  many 
years,  or  of  something  which  no  one  else  can 
show ;  but  what  is  his  real  unalloyed  pleasure 
compared  to  that  of  the  schoolboy  who  adds  a 
dozen  mediocre  stamps  to  his  modest  album  ? 
There  are  about  a  dozen  stamps  whose 
rarity  has  achieved  for  them  a  fame  which 
would  certainly  be  denied  on  any  other  score. 
That  this  number  should  be  actually  worth, 
in  the  open  market,  ^2000,  is  a  fact  which 
almost  takes  one's  breath  away.  Curiously 
138 


Postage  Stamps 

enough,  not  one  of  these  items  is  a  thing  of 
beauty ;  on  the  contrary,  they  are  almost  as 
ugly  and  inartistic  as  it  is  possible  for  such 
things  to  be — and  that  is  saying  a  good  deal. 
The  nominal  value  of  these  at  the  time  of 
issue  would  be  about  half-a-crown.  A  poor 
book  collector  may  be  pardoned  for  fancying 
what  magnificent  additions  he  could  make  to 
his  shelves  with  this  money.  A  big,  in  fact 
the  biggest,  slice  in  this  total  of  ^"2000  is 
swallowed  up  in  the  purchase  of  two  unlovely 
stamps,  the  id.  and  2d.  "Post  Office,  Mau- 
ritius," of  the  first  issue,  which  appeared  in 
September  1 847.  It  is  probable  that  not  more 
than  eight  sets  of  these  stamps  are  in  exist- 
ence, and  in  only  two  or  three  cases  do  they 
occur  together.  The  last  pair  sold  were  first 
acquired  by  Madame  Dubois  of  Bordeaux, 
having  been  found  in  a  merchant's  office 
there.  This  lady  sold  them  in  1867  to 
M.  E.  Lalanne,  who,  in  his  turn,  recently 
disposed  of  his  collection  (including  this 
pair)  for  60,000  francs  to  M.  Piet-Lataudrie, 
a  well-known  French  collector,  from  whom 
Messrs.  Stanley  Gibbons  &  Co.  purchased 
the  two  Mauritius  for  the  record  price  of 
;£68o,  for  an  English  collector.  The  Mau- 
ritius are  not  by  any  means  the  rarest  stamps 
in  the  world,  for  there  are  some  of  which 
only  one  copy  exists.  A  rarer  stamp,  for 
instance,  is  the  2  cents,  rose,  of  the  1851 

139 


Postage  Stamps 

issue  of  British  Guiana,  of  which  only  six 
are  known,  and  three  of  these  are  in  a  Paris 
collection  and  one  in  the  British  Museum. 
This  stamp  is  quite  the  most  clumsy  one 
ever  issued,  resembling  a  careless  post-mark 
more  than  anything  else.  The  1856  issues  of 
the  same  place  are  also  exceedingly  rare,  and 
some  of  the  varieties  are  worth  nearly  £  i  oo, 
whilst  an  error  of  this  issue,  the  I  cent, 
on  crimson  paper,  has  been  valued  at  more 
than  ^250.  The  first  issue  of  the  French 
Island  of  Reunion  is  rare  from  an  adventi- 
tious circumstance :  the  stock  was  nearly 
entirely  consumed  by  philatelic  white  ants 
within  a  few  days  of  publication,  and  the 
market  value  of  the  pair,  15  and  30  cen- 
times, is  about  ,£100.  The  earliest  issues, 
2,  5,  and  13  cents  (all  blue),  of  the  Sandwich 
or  Hawaiian  Islands,  1851,  are  also  practi- 
cally unobtainable ;  if  an  example  of  the 
2-cent  issue  came  into  the  market  it  would 
realise  probably  not  less  than  ^200.  In  con- 
nection with  these  Hawaiian  stamps,  it  may 
be  mentioned  that  they  were  set  from  types 
with  an  ornamental  border,  the  value  occupy- 
ing the  centre,  and  there  are  two  varieties 
of  each  value.  They  were  struck  off  "  from 
time  to  time  as  required,  and  printed  on  any 
kind  of  paper  that  happened  to  be  in  the 
market.  The  result  was  that  there  were  a 
great  number  of  slight  variations  in  the 
140 


Postage  Stamps 

minutiae  of  paper  and  shade  of  colour,  which 
are  all-important  to  the  genuine  philatelist." 
The  Hawaiian  Government  has  for  a  long 
time  manufactured  and  reprinted  stamps 
solely  for  collectors,  "  the  result  of  which 
is  that  the  postal  surplus,  which  was  nil 
before  the  reprinting  era,  now  averages 
^40,000  per  annum."  Some  of  the  ugliest 
stamps  in  the  world,  the  first  issue  of  Mol- 
davia, fetch  very  high  figures  in  the  market. 
In  1873  the  set  of  three  was  to  be  had 
for  a  mere  trifle — they  would  now  realise 
perhaps  ^150;  one  example  alone  sold  at 
auction  three  years  ago  for  ^49,  and  is  now 
valued  at  ^70.  The  10  centavos,  green,  of 
Bolivar,  1863,  likewise  one  of  a  trio,  is  now 
worth  £6 ;  twenty  years  ago  this  could 
have  been  had  for  2s.  6d.  Certain  Cape 
of  Good  Hope  stamps  are  much  sought, 
and  Philatelic  Vendor  invoices  them  accord- 
ingly. Several  of  these  owe  their  popularity 
to  the  carelessness  of  the  printer.  In  the 
1 86 1  issue  of  provisional  of  the  triangular 
stamps,  a  4d.  block  was  accidentally  inserted 
instead  of  the  id. ;  used  it  is  now  valued  at 
about  ^30,  unused  it  would  probably  sell  for 
^"150;  twenty  years  ago  this  stamp  was  to  be 
had  at  33.  The  investment  in  this  case  might 
certainly  be  considered  a  good  one.  Another 
would  be  the  I2d.  black  of  Canada,  1851, 
which  sold  in  1873  for  ios.,  and  is  now 
141 


Postage  Stamps 

worth  about  a  hundred  times  that  amount 
if  in  fine  condition. 

Such  are  some  of  the  top  prices  in  philately. 
The  guiding  principle  of  this  science  is  clearly 
neither  beauty  nor  utility,  but  simply  and 
solely  rarity.  When  we  are  in  touch  with 
those  greater  spirits  with  whom  the  price  has 
merely  to  be  intimated  to  bring  an  immediate 
cheque,  it  seems  waste  of  time  and  thought 
to  advise  the  people  (there  are  some  in  the 
world !)  who  are  actually  content  to  put 
up  with  reprints  of  the  rarer  stamps.  We 
need  not  mention  the  estimation  in  which 
Philatelic  Vendor  holds  such,  for  he,  as 
we  need  scarcely  say,  despises  reproductions, 
and  does  not  quite  know  whether  there  are 
things  of  that  kind. 

Twenty  years  ago  it  was  a  most  uncommon 
thing  to  come  across  a  stamp  priced  at  £i 
or  over  in  a  dealer's  catalogue ;  the  majority 
of  items,  in  fact,  came  well  under  is.  each. 
The  Bahamas  id.  stamp  of  1859  and  the  6d. 
one  of  1 86 1  might  have  been  had  together 
in  1873  for  8d.;  to-day  they  sell  for  close 
on  a  £s  n°te.  The  Ceylon  blue  id.  might 
have  been  had  in  1873  at  yd.  per  dozen  used ; 
they  are  now  worth  is.  each  ;  the  8d.  choco- 
late (1857),  once  retailed  at  35.  the  dozen, 
now  sells  by  auction  at  five  guineas  each ; 
but  one  of  the  greatest  rarities  in  the  Ceylon 
issues  is  the  8d.  octagonal  yellow-brown 
142 


Postage  Stamps 

(1861),  of  which  unused  examples  have 
risen  in  twenty  years  from  eighteenpence  to 
over  £  i ,  whilst  an  American  dealer  prices  an 
example  at  30  dollars.  In  fact,  all  the  Ceylon 
issues,  1857  to  1867,  have  greatly  increased 
in  value. 

Among  the  highest  priced  stamps  in  1873, 
Antioquia  took  the  lead  with  its  2j,  5,  and 
10  centavos,  which  were  offered  together  at 
the  then  high  figure  of  £4..  In  January 
1894,  Messrs.  Cheveley  sold  a  very  good  set 
for  ^"36,  i os.  So,  too,  the  20  centimes  of 
Fernando  Po  (1868),  which  was  sold  at  155. 
unused  in  1873,  has  now  doubled  in  value, 
the  unused  being  worth  only  about  is.  more 
than  the  used  example,  then  priced  at  los. 
The  two  French  stamps,  10  centimes  cinna- 
mon, and  25  centimes  blue,  issued  during 
the  Presidency  of  Louis  Napoleon  in  1852, 
were  offered  at  45.  6d.  and  2s.  6d.  respectively 
in  1873;  now  the  former  realises  £iy  and 
the  latter  about  6s. 

As  regards  the  stamps  of  this  country, 
the  id.  black,  with  the  initials  V.R.  in  the 
upper  corner,  maintains  its  position,  both  on 
the  score  of  rarity  and  of  price.  Many  col- 
lectors refuse  to  admit  it  into  their  collections, 
on  the  theory  that  it  was  never  actually  issued, 
and  is,  consequently,  only  an  "  essay "  and 
not  a  legitimate  stamp — a  point,  by  the  way, 
on  which  Mr.  Booty  has  a  good  deal  to  say 


Postage  Stamps 

in  his  lithographic  monograph.  They  also 
argue  that  the  few  used  examples  were  simply 
appropriated  by  officials  for  their  private 
letters,  and  escaped  detection  in  going  through 
the  post.  The  best  philatelic  authorities, 
however,  are  of  opinion  that  the  V.R.  is  a 
genuine  postage  stamp ;  at  all  events,  its 
1873  value  of  £2  has  now  increased  to  five 
times  that  amount.  This,  as  already  stated, 
is  almost  our  only  valuable  stamp,  but  the 
Mulready  envelope  has  risen  from  35.  6d. 
to  jgi.  The  is.  stamp  of  1847,  however, 
which,  unused,  sold  at  its  facial  value  twenty 
years  ago,  is  now  worth  nearly  ^3,  whilst 
the  6d.  violet  of  1864  is  now  priced  at  about 
j£i.  In  January  1894  a  "magnificent  un- 
used strip  of  three "  examples  of  the  8d. 
brown,  "with  gum  intact,"  realised  ^16; 
an  unused  block  of  six  of  the  2s.  salmon 
realised  ^18  at  Messrs.  Cheveley's  auction 
— in  each  case  an  uncommonly  good  invest- 
ment for  the  original  purchasers.  Buyers 
of  unused  English  stamps  at  par  value  can 
always  console  themselves  with  the  reflection 
that  they  are  never  likely  to  lose  over  the 
transaction,  for  the  stamps  of  this  country 
have  never  been  demonetised. 

India  had  in  its  1854  or  first  issue  two 

half-anna  stamps,  one  of  which,  the  blue,  is 

common  enough,  and  sells  for  a  few  pence, 

but  the  red  variety  is  very  rare,  and  realises 

144 


Postage  Stamps 

from  five  to  seven  guineas  under  the  hammer. 
Many  of  the  early  Newfoundland  stamps 
also  fetch  high  prices  in  the  auction-room, 
particularly  the  is.  issue  of  1857,  which  is 
sometimes  found  orange-vermilion,  and  at 
others  carmine-vermilion  in  colour,  the  prices 
ranging  from  £$>  IDS.  to  ^7,  los.  according 
to  condition,  "  a  tiny  tear  at  left  side  "  in 
one  instance  making  a  difference  of  ^i,  155. 
in  the  value!  Even  in  1873  these  stamps 
were  rare,  the  then  high  amount  of  1 8s.  each 
being  asked.  Few  Peruvian  stamps  realise 
fancy  prices,  the  chief  exceptions  being  the 
medio  peso,  rose,  of  1858,  very  fine  examples 
of  which  now  realise  from  £i  i  to  £11  each. 
Another  South  American  Republic,  Buenos 
Ayres,  included  among  its  first  issues  a  few 
stamps  which  have  since  become  very  rare, 
notably  the  5  pesos,  orange,  1858,  a  used 
example  of  which  was  valued  at  ^"2,  los.  as 
far  back  as  1873,  but  which  is  now  worth 
about  twelve  guineas;  the  4  pesos,  red,  of 
the  same  issue  has  only  advanced  from  ^"3 
to  from  six  to  nine  guineas  (Philatelic  Vendor 
scarcely  deems  it  worth  while  to  draw  your 
attention  to  it  in  the  bill),  and  the  3  pesos, 
green,  has  advanced  from  155.  to  ^3,  more 
or  less,  in  a  similar  period. 

If  the  United  States  stamps  are  not  as  a 
rule  beautiful,  they  are,  at  all  events,  very 
numerous,  and  that,  perhaps,  is  sufficient  for 
145  K 


Postage  Stamps 

the  average  American.  A  complete  collection 
of  the  United  States  issues  would  involve  the 
expenditure  of  much  time  and  money.  To 
begin  with,  the  provisional  issue  of  the  5 
cents  Brattleboro',  1846,  would  cost  at  least 
;£ioo,  and  might  be  perhaps  all  but  impos- 
sible to  obtain  even  at  that  price.  Another 
rare  example,  viz.,  the  5  cents  blue  stamp 
issued  by  the  Alabama  Government  at 
Livingston  during  the  war,  recently  sold  at 
auction  in  New  York  for  780  dollars.  The 
stamps  issued  by  the  Confederate  States  are 
now  of  the  greatest  rarity ;  recently  one  of 
these  (?  2  cents  green),  of  Baton  Rouge, 
Louisiana,  "  went  for  99  dollars  to  a  man 
who  said  his  name  was  Philip,"  as  the  New 
York  reporter  put  it ;  another,  the  5  cents 
of  the  same  place,  realising  9  8  dollars.  The 
St.  Louis  5,  10  and  20  cents  stamps  are  also 
among  the  rarest  of  the  local  issues.  In 
1872  the  5  cents  realised  just  over  175.  each, 
and  the  10  cents  about  I2s. ;  fine  examples 
of  these  now  realise  from  six  guineas  to 
;£8,  i  os.  respectively,  while  the  value  of 
the  20  cents  stamp  is  somewhere  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  £  100.  There  is,  besides 
the  regular  official  issues,  an  enormous  series 
of  local  and  provincial  stamps,  and  the 
endless  Pony  Expresses  and  curious  postal 
media  employed  by  trading  firms  in  years 
gone  by.  Some  of  these  are  extremely 
146 


Postage  Stamps 

characteristic    and    picturesque,    and    their 
scarcity  is  apt  to  grow. 

A  few  examples  of  the  United  States  15 
cents  and  24  cents  1869  issues,  with  inverted 
centres,  got  into  circulation,  and  are  now 
appraised  at  £17  and  ;£i8,  los.  respectively, 
the  values  of  the  correct  impressions  being 
less  than  half  as  many  shillings.  In  the 
Mauritius  1848  id.  blue,  one  variety  reads 
"  penoe  "  instead  of  "  pence  :  "  the  example 
with  the  error  is  valued  at  ,£10,  but  for  the 
one  without  it  Philatelic  Vendor  accepts  a 
complimentary  douceur  of  five  guineas.  But 
the  most  famous  of  all  "  errors "  in  this 
direction  is  the  "  Connell  "  stamp  of  New 
Brunswick,  in  which  the  then  postmaster, 
thinking  that  his  own  portrait  would  be 
as  acceptable  to  the  natives  as  that  of  his 
sovereign,  had  5  cent  stamps  so  ornamented 
in  1 86 1.  Not  many,  however,  got  into 
circulation.  In  1873  it  was  selling  at  75.  6d. 
each  unused  ;  a  good  specimen  now  sells 
readily  at  ,£20.  Think  of  that,  Master 
Brook ! 

Philately  has  often  been  the  arena  of 
"  bulls  "  and  "  bears  ;  "  and  in  dealing  in 
stamps  it  is  as  necessary  for  one  to  be  wide 
awake  as  in  other  forms  of  speculation.  An 
attempt  at  "  a  corner  "  is  said  to  have  been 
made  in  regard  to  the  United  States  Colum- 
bian issue,  but  it  was  unsuccessful.  A  similar 
H7 


Postage  Stamps 

move  was  made  when  the  United  States 
Government  was  about  to  cease  the  issue 
of  10  cent  stamped  envelopes.  A  certain 
dealer  bought  10,000  examples,  for  which 
he  paid  1000  dollars,  and  was  sufficiently 
"  previous  "  to  issue  a  circular  to  the  effect 
that  collectors  would  be  able  to  buy  examples 
after  a  certain  date  at  a  fancy  figure.  The 
Postal  Department  was  inundated  with  pro- 
tests from  those  who  had  not  taken  time  by 
the  forelock.  The  virtuous  officials  (being 
outside)  resented  the  trick ;  the  decision  to 
suspend  the  issue  was  revoked,  and  150,000 
more  were  printed  off.  A  certain  Don  Juan 
Cardillas,  Monte  Video,  collected  over  100,000 
examples  of  the  Uruguay  5  cent  blue  of  1883, 
with  the  figure  of  General  Santos.  But  a 
very  large  number  of  this  issue  had  been 
struck  ofF,  and  the  unfortunate  speculator 
would  not  have  realised  a  profit  on  his  trans- 
action until  he  had  reached  the  age  of 
Methuselah ;  so,  not  content  to  wait,  and 
finding  it  impossible  to  make  this  stamp  rare 
by  fair  or  other  means,  Don  Cardillas  set  fire 
to  the  lot. 

But  the  day  of  the  great  prizes  is  gone  ; 
only  very  few  people  recognised  the  extent 
to  which  the  hobby  would  develop  itself. 
They  held  on  in  the  anticipation  of  a  rise, 
and  the  rise  came.  It  is  now  too  late  for 
others  to  enter  into  the  fray  in  the  expec- 
148 


Postage  Stamps 

tation  of  making  a  good  thing  out  of  it. 
Stamps  are  either  very  rare  or  very  common 
— very  expensive  or  very  cheap.  The  rarities 
to  which  allusion  has  been  made  constitute 
an  insignificant  minority,  which  there  is  not 
a  very  good  prospect  of  swelling  from  new 
sources.  At  the  same  time,  the  peculiarly  un- 
satisfactory features  and  conditions  of  stamp- 
collecting,  which  afford  exceptional  facilities 
for  deception,  and  reduce  the  test  of  genuine- 
ness, for  the  most  part,  to  the  water-mark 
of  the  paper  on  which  the  stamp  has  been 
printed,  must  in  due  course  deter  many  from 
prosecuting  the  taste,  since  the  fad  has  passed 
from  the  hands  of  the  young  into  those  of 
their  seniors,  who  may  now  and  then  grow 
weary  at  last  of  working  early  and  late  to 
find  the  tribute-money  for  that  most  insatiable, 
albeit  most  veracious  and  upright,  of  modern 
commercial  celebrities,  Philatelic  Vendor,  pre- 
viously quoted. 


149 


Index 


Index 


ALDUS,  first  book  printed  by, 

16 

Americana,  26 
American  stamps,  145 
Antioquian  stamps,  143 
Apponyi  Library,  the,  10-11 
Arbuthnot,  Mr.  E.  O.,  113 
Auction,  the  first  stamp,  136 


BALBI  Catholicon,  the,  13 
Beckford  Library,  7,  8,  9 
Berghem,  N.,  62 
Bernal  sale,  109 
Bible,  the  English,  13-14 
Blue  and  white  porcelain,  1 1 1 , 
112,  113 

Bohn  collection  of  porcelain, 

109 

Booty,  Frederick,  129 
Both,  Jan,  61 
Botticelli,  74 
Bow  ware,  1 26 
Brinkley,  Captain,  113 
Bristol  ware,  125 
British  Guiana  stamps,  140 
British  School  of  Painting,  79- 


British  stamps,  143 


Browning,  Robert,  39,  40-41 
Buen  Retiro  china,  122 
Burghley  House  china,  in 
Byron,  Lord,  37-38 

CAFFAGIOLO  ware,  122 
Callcott,  Sir  A.  W.,  90,  91 
Canaletto,  74 
Capo  di  Monte  ware,  122 
Cassiobury  Park  sale,  117 
Caxton,    works    printed     by, 

19-22 

Ceylon  stamps,  142 
Chelsea  ware,  124 
China,  Charles  Lamb  on,  105 
China  collecting,  105  et  seq. 
Cole,  Vicat,  8 1 
Constable,  John,  80 
Cooper,  Mr.  T.  S.,  98 
Correggio,  75 

Coventry  vases,  the,  115-116 
Cox,  David,  86-87 
Crivelli,  Carlo,  76 
Cuyp,  a,  6 1 

DEFOE'S  "  Robinson  Crusoe," 

25 
Derby  ware,  126 


153 


Index 


De  Wint,  Peter,  87 
Dickens,  first  editions  of,  29, 32 
Dickins'  collection   of  china, 

no 

Dolci,  Carlo,  76 
Dow,  Gerard,  73 
Dresden  china,  119 
Dudley's  (Lord)  collection  of 

Sevres,  116 
Dutch  School  of  Painters,  60 

EASTLAKK,  Sir  Charles,  90 
Editionts  principes,  II 
Egremont,  Earl  of,  73 
Etty,  W.,  90 

FAED,  T.,  98 

Ferrary,  Herr  Philip  von,  134 

Fielding,  Copley,  87 

First  editions,  the  cult  of,  28 

French  stamps,  143 

Frith,  Mr.  W.  P.,  98 

GAINSBOROUGH,  Thomas,  85 

Giorgione,  77 

Gladstone,  Mr.,  109,  122 

Goldsmith's  "  Vicar  of  Wake- 
field,"  25 

Goodall,  Mr.  F.,  96 

Grant,  Sir  F.,  99 

Gray,  Dr.  J.  E.,  136 

Gray's  "  Elegy,"  25 

Greek,  first  book  printed  in, 
15-16 

Grolier's  copy  of  Lucretius,  18 

Gubbio  pottery,  120 


HAMILTON  Palace  sale,  70, 1 18 
Hardy,  Mr.  Thomas,  45,  46 
Hawaiian  stamps,  141 
Heber,  Richard,  4 
Henri  Deux  ware,  122 
Hertford,  Lord,  118 
Hispano-Moresque  ware,  121 
Hobbema,  M.,  64,  65 
Hodgson  sale,  118 
Homer,  editio  princeps,  15 
Hooch,  P.  de,  63 
Hook,  Mr.  J.  C,  98 
Hope,  Adrian,  60 
"  Hypnerotomachia  Poliphili," 
'7 

JEFFERIES,  R.,  42,  44 
Jones,  Sir  E.  Burne,  97 
Joseph,  the  late  E.,  121 


KEENE'S    "Memoirs   of    his 
Life,"  25 

LAMB,  Charles,  35,  105 
Landseer,  Sir  E.,  91-93 
Lang,  Mr.  Andrew,  42,  43 
Leighton,  Sir  F.,  99 
Lewis,  C.  J.,  81 
Lewis,  J.  F.,  88 
Limited  editions,  49 
Lippi,  F.,  77 
Lonsdale  china,  1 10 


MAURITIUS  stamps,  139 
Mazarin  Bible,  the,  12,  13 


'54 


Index 


Memlinc,  Hans,  63 
Meredith,  Mr.  George,  45 
Millais,  Sir  J.,  97 
Milton,  John,  24 
Moldavian  stamps,  141 
Motives  for  collecting  books,  6 
Miiller,  W.  J.,  89 
Murietta,  Messrs.,  82 


NASMYTH,  Peter,  94 
Neglected  books,  4-5 
Newfoundland  stamps,  145 


OSTADE,  A.  and  I.,  65-66 
Ovid,  editio  princeps,  16 


"  PARADISE  Lost,"  6-7 
"Pastissier  Fran$ois,"  Le,  I 
Pedigrees  of  pictures,  59 
Perkins  sale,  the,  12 
Philatelic  Society,  the,  133 
Picture  dealers,  53 
Pictures,  53-101 
Poole,  P.  F.,  94 
Postage  stamps,  129-149 
Pottery  and  porcelain,  105-126 
Price,  David,  57 
Psalmorum  Codex,  the,  13 


RAPHAEL,  77 

Rare  books  and  their  prices, 

1-50 
Rembrandt,  66-67 


Reynolds,  Sir  Joshua,  83,  84 
Roberts,  David,  93 
Romney,  George,  83 
Rosa,  Salvator,  79 
Rossetti,  D.  G.,  95 
Rubens,  P.  P.,  70 
Ruskin,  John,  41-42 
Ruysdael,  68 


SARTO,  Andrea  del,  79 
Scott,  Sir  Walter,  38 
Sevres  porcelain,  115 
Shakespeare,  works  of,  22-23 
Shelley,  P.  B.,  36-37 
Shuldham,  Dr.  E.  B.,  113 
Sloane,  Sir  Hans,  124 
Spenser,  E.,  24 
Spitzer  sale,  the,  121 
Stamp  collecting,  its  origin, 

13*1  132 

Stamp  collections,  some,  134 
Stanfield,  Clarkson,  91 
Stephen,  J.  K.,  49 
Stevenson,  R.  L.,  47 
Summer  Palace,  Pekin,  114 
Sunderland  Library,  7,  8,  1 1 
Syston  Park  Library,  9 


TADEMA,  Mr.  Alma,  97, 98 
Tapling,  T.,  135 
Teniers,  D.,  71 
Tennyson,  Lord,  39,  40 
Thackeray,    first  editions  of, 

29.  32,  33 
Tintoretto,  79 


'55 


Turner,  J.  M.  W.,  93-94 
Tyndall,  Professor,  46 

URBINO  pottery,  120 

VALDARFER  Boccaccio, 

U-I5 

Van  de  Veldes,  A.,  72 
Virgil,  editio  princeps,  15 


the, 


Index 

WALPOLE,  Horace,  105 
Walton's  "Angler,"  24 
Warton's  "  History  of  English 

Poetry,"  3 
Webster,  T.,  91 
Wilkie,  Sir  David,  93 
Worcester  ware,  126 
Wouverman,  72 
Wynant,  J.,  72 


THE    END 


Printed  by  BALLANTYNE,  HANSON  &  Co. 
Edinburgh  and  London 


9  HART  STREET 

BLOOMSBURY  LONDON 
November  iSyj. 


The 
Collector    Series 


MR.    GEORGE    REDWAY    begs    to 
announce  the  publication  of  this  series 
of  books,  each   volume  of  which  will 
discuss  some  one  of  the  subjects  which  are  of 
interest  to  Collectors. 

Coins  and  Medals,  Engravings,  Pictures  and 
Drawings,  Postage  Stamps,  Book  Plates,  Auto- 
graphs, Armour  and  Weapons,  Plate,  Porcelain 
and  Pottery,  Old  Violins,  Japanese  Curios,  and 
Bric-a-brac  of  all  sorts  will  be  dealt  with,  each 
in  a  separate  volume,  and  by  a  writer  specially 
conversant  with  his  subject.  The  instiact  for 
collecting  has  been  made  the  butt  for  much 


cheap  ridicule  by  those  who  confound  it  with 
the  mere  aimless  bringing  together  of  objects 
which  have  no  other  merit  than  their  rarity. 
But  it  has  repeatedly  been  proved  that  skill  and 
patience  are  more  helpful  to  success  in  col- 
lecting than  length  of  purse,  and  it  is  especially 
for  those  who  desire  to  pursue  their  amusement 
with  intelligent  economy  that  this  series  has  been 
planned. 

The  great  prizes  in  the  older  forms  of  col- 
lecting have  long  since  been  won,  and  though 
it  may  be  needful  in  these  handbooks  to  refer 
occasionally  to  a  book,  a  coin,  a  postage  stamp,  or 
a  particular  "  state  "  of  an  etching  or  engraving, 
of  which  only  a  single  example  exists,  the  object 
of  the  series  will  mainly  be  to  describe  those 
specimens  which  are  still  attainable  by  the 
amateurs  who  will  take  the  pains  to  hunt  them 
down. 

For  this  reason,  though  the  series  will  be 
written  by  experts,  it  will  be  written  by  experts 
who  have  in  view,  not  the  visitors  to  the  great 
Museums  of  Europe,  but  the  amateur  and  col- 
lector of  moderate  means,  who  is  anxious  to 
specialise  in  some  one  or  two  departments  of 
his  favourite  studies,  and  to  whom  it  is  still 

2 


open  by  care  and  judgment  to  bring  together, 
at  a  moderate  expense,  small  yet  perfect  collec- 
tions which  any  museum  would  be  glad  to 


Arrangements  have  been  made  with  many 
well-known  writers  and  specialists  for  their 
assistance  as  authors  or  editors  of  volumes  of 
the  series. 

Each  volume  will  contain  from  250  to  300 
octavo  pages,  from  twelve  to  twenty  plates,  and 
a  title-page  designed  by  Mr.  Laurence  Housman. 
The  series  will  be  printed,  from  new  type,  on 
specially-prepared  paper,  by  Messrs.  Ballantyne, 
Hanson  &  Co. 

Volumes  on  Coins,  Miniatures,  Prints,  Postage 
Stamps,  Book  Plates,  Old  Bibles,  Drawings, 
Glass,  Old  Violins,  &c.,  are  now  in  hand,  and 
publication  will  be  commenced  on  the  ist  of 
December. 

The  price  of  each  volume  of  the  series  will 
be  6s.  or  7-r.  6d.  net. 

The  Publisher  reserves  the  right  to  issue  a 
3 


limited  number  of  copies  of  any  volume  of  the 
series  either  on  Japanese  vellum  or  Whatman  or 
India  paper,  or  with  the  illustrations  in  "  proof" 
state,  according  as  the  subject  of  the  book  may 
suggest.  The  number  and  price  of  these  will  be 
announced  in  each  case,  and  they  will  be  strictly 
reserved  for  Subscribers  before  publication. 

The  Series  will  be  published  in  America  by 
Messrs.  Longmans,  Green  &  Co. 


GETTY  CENTER  LIBRARY 


3  3125  00974  3648 


